Burning Leaves
by Hyuugamaki
Summary: Naruto, Hinata, and Lee are sent to train with Jiraiya for a Chuunin exam at Sunagakure after Sasuke leaves. Orochimaru expands his power base while a plot is uncovered that will destroy far more than Konoha. NaruxHina and others.
1. 01 Budding Leaves

**I don't own Naruto, please read and review.  
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**This is the revised Chapter 01 with much better grammar and some scene changes. Also, please visit my anime blog and drop a comment at acinonyx(dot)wordpress(dot)com, the link is also on my main page, please spread the word to your friends as hopefully this fic and the blog will generate traffic for each other somehow. **

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The sun shown brightly high in the cloudless sky, affording the landscape below all of the sun's warmth. On the ground below a gentle breeze swept through a village situated in the middle of a large forest and a wedge of mountain. With so many trees the sound of leaves rustling in the blowing wind rung clearly for miles, and provided a constant background noise to the daily life in the village. 

Konohagakure, the capitol ninja village of fire country was one of the most populated cities on the entire continent. Even as densely populated as the village was the outskirts of the walled in congregation held almost no population. About the only things that really existed in the outlying areas were many numerous training grounds of different sizes and purpose. One member of the village spent an inordinate amount of time in these area training himself to exhaustion. At the moment however he wasn't training at all, rather he simply lay in the grass on the fringe of one of the grounds. The boy, only age thirteen, was near passed out from exhaustion. His normally disheveled head of bright blond hair now lay damp with sweat over his cerulean eyes. The most notable feature of his face was not the striking color of his eyes, but the six identical whisker shaped birthmarks that marred his cheeks. The fact that they were obviously not normal human characteristics led to the draw they had on people's eyes. His predominately orange jacket lay open, exposing his black fishnet shirt to the sun. His matching orange pants were slightly marred with various grass stains he had received from training almost all through the day, his blue sandals suffered a similar fate.

Naruto's right hand sported countless small puncture marks that looked like they were made by teeth, the result of trying out the limits of his Kichiyose Jutsu. The day had been spent trying out the depths of the summoning technique taught to him by his most recent teacher. He was now finding out the art of summoning ninja toads was a lot more complicated than he had originally thought. His perverted teacher had summoned various toads during the short time he had known him for many different tasks, so it stood to reason that he should have been able to do the same. After many failed attempts Naruto had decided that it was in character for Jiraiya to have left out the finer points.

He attempted it regardless, using chakra differently each time to see what results he could get. Thanks to this trial and error Naruto now had a new nightmare. Just yesterday he had pumped a lot of chakra into the summoning, but his mind hand started to wander when he should have been thinking about his chakra control. What he unwittingly summoned was not a veteran toad ninja as he had hoped, but over a thousand smoke bomb sized toad eggs. They quickly lost their cohesion and fell over him in a squiggly mass. It had been more than an hour before they ate up the chakra he had used to summon them. He shuddered as he lay there remembering the squishy horror. It was very frustrating, but he usually would have had a brilliant idea strike him by this point. Something that would bring everything into focus and grant him insight into his training. The lack of such a thing now was frustrating .

Without warning the light filtering through his bangs was denied to him. "Hey…Naruto," a voice came from somewhere in front of him. He opened his eyes and mustered the energy to brush away his bangs only to see Shikamaru standing before him.

The newest Konoha Chuunin was one of many people as of late he could call friend. Shikamaru always had a look on his face that could contain apathy, boredom, or even sleepiness. Sometimes he pulled off a look that mixed all three. Like his expressions, Shikamaru's appearance hadn't changed much at all since leaving the Gennin ranks. His jet black hair was still tied up into a tight topknot that arrayed all his hair into a thick column. He still wore the same grey t-shirt and long black shorts. The only change to his wardrobe was the addition of the standard issue flak jacket. This extra addition to his wardrobe was essentially a badge of rank as a Chuunin, but also offered a good deal of protection.

Beside the proffesionaly bored boy stood another one of his new friends. 'Stood' was not a term which usually applied to the energetic 'fuzzy brows' as Naruto was often wont to call him. Rock Lee was a Gennin a year older than either of them and belonged to the strongest rookie cell. Naruto wouldn't hesitate to say that Lee was pretty much one of the weirdest guys he had ever met. Upon meeting him for the first time a person's gaze was always drawn to the outrageous full-body green spandex outfit he wore before they noticed anything else. Part of it's oddity was that it gave the illusion of looking simpler than it actually was. Other than the standard sandals, kunai pouch, and forehead protector he, for some reason, wore on his waist it was a pretty simple outfit as far as ninja equipment went. His outfit was finished off by some bandages wrapped around his wrists and forearms, and a pair of large orange shin socks. If anything about him could compete with his outrageous outfit it would have to be his face. His hairstyle made it look like someone had just stuck a bowl on top of his head and cut around the rim. Two completely black orbs stared out of abnormally large round eyes, completing the effect. All in all Lee struck an odd figure.

"Huh, Shikamaru whad'ja want?" Having suddenly had activity forced back on him Naruto could gradually feel more and more of his strength returning.

"Greetings Naruto-kun, we bring orders from Hokage-sama for you to return with us to her office." Lee put forth a hand to help out the prone Naruto.

Naruto managed to prop himself up on his elbows before proceeding to negotiate himself into a kneeling position. "What does Obaa-chan want with me now?" he had already used up all but a fraction of his personal chakra and his body ached from the lack of it. He clasped the preferred arm gratefully with his own.

"The Hokage asked for me to bring you and Rock Lee to her for a meeting that's for your ears only. I'm just a courier." Shikamaru paused as Lee steadied Naruto, the latter grinning with that usual stupid grin of his. "Troublesome," he added as an afterthought.

Naruto looked questioningly at the Gennin and Chuunin before him. "Why both Rock Lee and me?" He paused for a moment, than "Is it a mission? I'm supposed to be leaving soon with Ero-Sennin for a whole bunch of training soon. If it's a quick one I guess I could squeeze it in," That big dumb grin of his was readily available once again. He acted like she would have to beg to get him to do a mission.

Shikamaru winced at Naruto's sloppy way of speaking. "You'll find out when we get there. Try not to let your ego get the best of you." With that the shadow-user turned and began making his way past the tree line towards Konoha. Rock Lee and Naruto quickly moved to follow him, the blond almost tripping over himself in the process.

While the three continued to make their way to the Hokage tower Tsunade was already entertaining another guest. She was glad at least someone had the propriety to be on time when she asked for them.

It was a rather nice day and the windows to her office were thrown open, letting the soothing scent of the spring air waft in on the day's cool breeze. The sunlight streamed through theses open windows and illuminated all of the Hokage's office in an affable light.

The girl that sat in one of the large chairs set before her seemed to always be nervous or unsure about something as far as Tsunade could tell. Everything about the girl seemed to suggest she was just barely resisting the urge to hide. It always surprised her how much like the rest of her clan the girl was not. Her blue-black hair framed her face perfectly on all sides. The sides of her bangs came down to her neck and the hair at the nape of her neck came up to meet the hair from the top of her head in a point in back. Her eyes were the biggest curiosity about her, the two milky white orbs seemed to suggest she was blind, but it was readily obvious she could see quite well. Unlike her classically pretty face her outfit was decidedly unfeminine and overly concealing. She wore a creamy tan colored jacket a little too large for her with curious symbols on the shoulders and a fuzzy hem at the bottom. In yet another oddity her forehead protector rested around her neck after the fashion of a loose choker. The last piece of her ensemble was filled out by standard blue shin-length pants and the standard issue sandals. Tsunade also noted that if her fingers weren't twiddling together nervously she was looking around the office with a slight look of apprehension.

The Hokage could only imagine how much harder it would have been to get Hyuuga Hinata for the mission she had planned if the girl was still a member of the Hyuuga's main house. As it stood she could only guess why Hiashi, Hinata's father and head of the Hyuuga clan, was allowing this considering how protective they were of their bloodline. She didn't give it too much thought however, 'what happens in the clan stays in the clan' was an old adage for most of Konoha's clans.

Tsunade and Hinata were the only two in the room at the moment. Her trusted friend and aide Shizune, niece to a man she loved long ago, was not here. She was currently on a mission in Amegakure acting as one of the liaisons for the upcoming Chuunin exam to be held there. Not wanting to unduly stress Hinata out Tsunade let the silence continue as they waited for the last arrivals.

The arrivals in question made quick progress through the village towards the Hokage tower. Usually the rooftops gave access to speedy travel for Ninjas. Construction on various buildings still being conducted after the recent battles made that a hazard now, however. That only left more normal means of transportation. Many different ninja and citizens clogged the streets they now walked on with their various comings and goings. The many colored buildings that made up the heart of the village had never been arranged in any specific order making navigation difficult for all but those who had grown up there. They _had_ grown up there so they easily made their way through the throng of foot traffic with a practiced knowledge of the village's layout.

The red roofed building, with the kanji for fire emblazoned at the top was one of the largest structures in the village; As well it should be since it was the cornerstone for Konoha's ninja force. The three walked through the open doors and were immediately greeted by someone they recognized as an examiner from the Chuunin exam.

Hagane Kotetsu was indeed involved in the Chuunin exam. He along with his partner Kamizuki Izumo had administered a pre-exam test to all applicants. Kotetsu wore an administrator's uniform, looking somehow out of place on him. His hair was even wilder and unkempt than Naruto's own, and for some reason he had a bandage that stretched over the middle of his face.

He motioned for the new arrivals to follow him. "Allow me to take you to the Hokage's office. Heh, you shouldn't have been late." Naruto at least didn't need an elaboration on why they should have been punctual. Most likely he'd get blamed for it anyway.

They fell in behind the administrator and followed him to their destination. Naruto had memorized the way a long time ago, but he could see that the new Hokage had done some redecorating. The walls were now periodically covered with various potted plants and paintings of various scenes from around the land of fire. He guessed it was better than the previous Hokage's tastes.

The small group of ninja eventually made it to the office door after many curving corridors and flights of stairs. Kotetsu opened the simple door for the three younger ninja, motioning them inside once the door was open.

As usual the large desk at the far wall was covered in a myriad of books and scrolls. The only decorations on the walls were portraits of previous Hokages and two people Naruto could only assume were Nawaki and Dan. Tsunade had told him about those two, her brother and her only love; killed in defense of the village believing in the dream of being Hokage.

The odd looking administrator shut the door behind them and for a moment all was silent. The sunlight streaming through the window was bright on his face yet Naruto could still make out Tsunade at her desk. He couldn't tell who but another person sat in one of the comfy chairs facing the Hokage.

Tsunade cut an odd figure for a Hokage. Despite being around fifty years old she kept up the appearance of someone in their twenties. Her blond hair had a very youthful sheen to it, and the style of two ponytails seemed to also detract from her age. She wore a simple green coat with the kanji for gambler on the back over a gray sashed top that seemed barely able to contain her sizable bust. She finished off her outfit with dark blue pants and matching heels.

"I'm glad you three finally made it. Here I was hoping I'd get to send someone to go find you three." Tsunade glared at Shikamaru with a scary grin.

"Hey hey I had to find him first. It was troublesome just trying to find him you know." Shikamaru didn't look the least bit apologetic, just annoyed.

Tsunade's look turned to one of understanding. "That's alright. You can go join your new cell now if you want."

He gave a smart salute and turned to walk out the door. As he exited the room he gave simple parting words to his friends "See you guys later I guess."

As the door shut closed again something occurred to Naruto. "New cell? What's that about Obaa-Chan?" he could only think that it had something to do with being promoted to Chuunin.

At the sound of his voice the person in the chair before him jumped slightly.

Tsunade's eye twitched involuntarily at that name he still called her. She had grudgingly learned to just accept that as his way by this point. "Actually that has something to do with what I've called you three in here for. It concerns the future of our village so I want you all to listen closely to what I have to say."

Her focus centered on the Hokage hopeful first. "Fist off Naruto I have to tell you that Jiraiya will not be able to take you on your training journey he had planned. I've given a mission that takes precedence over that." She left it at that and prepared herself to receive a very loud response.

As if her subconscious prayers had been answered Naruto was too dumbfounded by that simple statement to yell a response. "Uh… what now?" He was hoping he had heard her wrong. She couldn't mean he was being denied the training he had been promised did she?

Tsunade held up a hand to forestall any more questions. "Hold your questions until I'm done for once please. Now, Uzumaki Naruto, Rock Lee, and Hyuuga Hinata I am giving you an A-class mission of the utmost importance. Before I tell you the mission let me first explain the circumstances behind the mission-."

"-What, Hinata, Where?" Tsunade had to resist the urge to yell at Naruto for interrupting her yet again.

The introverted girl in question shot out of her seat and spun to face the Naruto and Lee. She quickly entered a succession of small bows before she even met their eyes. "He-hello Naruto-kun, Lee-san. It's nice to see you well." She exited her bows doing her best to smile warmly despite herself.

The energetic blond hadn't seen Hinata in awhile, since the Chuunin exam if his memory served. She looked just how he remembered, yet there seemed to be something different about her. After studying her for a few moments he figured out what it was. She stood straighter than she used to and as she stood her feet now pointed outward. She looked like she was doing her best to look straight at him now instead of looking as if something was forcing her to look elsewhere. Her hands still fiddled with each other, but at least it wasn't to the degree they had before. He had to admit she actually looked somewhat cute without the dark and weird personality he had always seen with before the Chuunin exam.

"Hey Hinata, what's up? Heh you're looking good today." His casual words elicited a deep blush from Hinata; One which he was promptly oblivious to.

"I'm doing well Naruto-Kun, um… thank you," she had instantly realized her blush and was doing everything she could to suppress it. She quickly turned around to face Tsunade so Naruto wouldn't see her embarrassment.

"It's good to see you are well Hinata-san," Lee gave her a thumbs-up simply out of reflex.

Tsunade decided to continue with what she had been saying before the interruption, and ignored the small exchange. She steepled her fingers on the desk, confident she could give her speech without any further interruptions.

"The future of our village isn't as certain as it once was. We still haven't completely recovered from the combined attack of the Sand and Sound villages. There just aren't enough Chuunin and Jounin left in the village to take on enough missions to monetarily support Konoha. My hand's been forced to strengthen the ranks of our usable ninja from any available source. It was hard to come to this decision, but here it is." The Hokage considered each of the three ninja before her with a criticizing eye.

If she was going to be honest with herself she would have to admit that this plan didn't sound as plausible as it should have to her. If there had been a safer and more efficient way to fortify their ranks she would have taken almost anything over this.

With a sigh Tsunade continued. "After consulting the village committee I've decided to break up all current Gennin cells. All Gennins will than be reformed into new cells with new members. These cells will be led by ninja of my choice from outside the pool of Konoha's available Jounin. Half the teams I'm forming will stay here in Konoha and continue to take on missions and train. The other half will be going to various locations and receive training there."

Tsunade was very pleased to see Naruto was keeping his comments to himself so far, a miracle under any circumstance. "Thus we come to the specifics of your mission. One of these new cells, cell fifteen, will be made up of you three. This arrangement has been chosen because in the future many missions will require ninja who have never worked together before to perform as they would with their own teammates. All of your abilities and personalities clash with the others in some way. This is of course an attempt to get you used to working with diverse people."

The three newly appointed teammates looked at each other. It looked like they had no choice but to get used to the idea of being teammates. This certainly wasn't what any of them had been expecting. Naruto, for one, really wasn't liking the idea of his training being canceled, but his disappointment was lessened by the promises of some kind of training. _As long as I can get strong enough to bring Sasuke back than I don't care._

The Hokage let this shock settle in before continuing. "Your cell's specific mission is to travel to Sunagakure and not only train there but to do missions alongside the other Gennins there. It goes without saying that the main goal of this mission is to get all of our Gennins to the Chuunin level as quickly as possible. The next Chuunin exam will be held in Grass Country, and the one after that will be held in Rain Country. I expect you three will be able to elevate yourselves to Chuunin status by that time. The Grass Country exam will be too soon for most cells so I suggest you anticipate taking the Rain Country exam."

Naruto liked the sound of that. Anything that got him closer to being a Chuunin was okay with him. He still didn't know how he felt of suddenly being denied the pervert's training. At this point all he could hope for is that their Jounin instructor would be able to teach him just as many useful things as Jiraiya could have.

Hinata's thoughts were completely different from Naruto's. If what Tsunade said was true than they would be gone from the village for a year at the very least. That would mean being away from the feelings of exile she felt from her former family. That would mean being around Naruto constantly the whole time. This was something she hadn't dared hope was possible before she had woken up this morning.

Rock Lee viewed this similarly to Naruto, a chance for diverse training and another shot at the Chuunin exam. It would mean not being able to train with Gai-Sensei for a long awhile, but that in itself was a form of training in his eyes.

"For reasons I can't reveal right now the maximum time limit for this mission is set to three years. It is required that the moment all three of you reach Chuunin you are to report back to Konoha immediately, that is all. I guess I'll take your questions now." Tsunade sighed deeply as she finished.

The three new members of cell fifteen looked at each other questioningly. Ironically the first one to speak up wasn't the outgoing Naruto, but the quite Hinata. "Hokage-sama... who exactly is our new instructor?" To each of them it seemed like an important piece of information to leave out.

Tsunade thought about it quickly than figured she actually had left that out. "Ah yes, about that." At this she smirked "one amongst you has already met your new instruct-."

Tsunade was interrupted by a sudden explosion of smoke that filled the space between cell fifteen and Tsunade's desk. The room was filled instantly with Shamisen, Otsuzumi, and Hyoshigi music.

A loud and annoying voice broke through the music "Hiiiiiiiiiyoooooo here I am, Mt. Myobokugama's outstanding holy master-."

"AAAHH SHUT UP you stupid Ero-Sennin… wait, what?" Naruto suddenly realized what had happened. "Ero-Sennin?"

The Legendary Sennin Jiraiya looked back at the group from the toad he was standing on, perched in a traditional Kabuki pose. "AAAAHHH NARUTO!" he yelled with fake surprise. He took his time forming the seal for canceling a summon, intoning "cancel," as he did. Another burst of smoke filled the room as the toad disappeared. Jiraiya fell into a neat slouch at the absence of his perch. "How's it going kid?"

To the untrained eye it looked as if the toad hermit had pieced together his outfit from various costume shops during his travels. The center piece for his ensemble was an old style olive ninja gi complete with underlying fishnet. He wore over that a red vest, and had a large scroll hanging off his back. His forehead protector, with the kanji for oil stamped in the middle, invoked the image of ogre's horns. Twin red 'tear streaks' on his face drew a lot of attention from any wrinkle line you might find there. To top off his weird ensemble his gray hair, held in a spiky ponytail almost touched the ground.

"Don't tell me you're our new instructor. Isn't that a little anti… anti uhhh-," Naruto trailed off, not really being able to think of the word.

As dumbfounded as the other two members were by the strange man's entrance Rock Lee managed a suggestion, "anti-climatic?"

"Uh, yeah," Naruto hadn't really paid attention to what Lee had said, but responded out of habit. He was still trying to figure out why Ero-Sennin was here.

Tsunade wasted no time. Choosing rather to keep the young ninja off balance. "Introduce yourself to your new cell Jiraiya-Sensei," there was a mocking lilt to the title she gave him.

Jiraiya sighed in response. This really wasn't something he wanted to do, but Tsunade had made it a choice-less matter for him. He eyed his three new charges, quickly sizing them up. He had led a cell once before, it made sense he could do it again.

"Alright than, my name is Jiraiya and I've been asked by the Hokage to be the cell leader for the new Cell… fifteen. Our first mission I guess is to first go to Sunagakure where we will do some co-ed training. I've been informed in detail about your abilities and such stuff," It just wasn't in him to remain serious for any long period of time.

Hinata was a little overwhelmed by all these things happening at once. She thought about all her old classmates going through a similar situation including Shino and Kiba. At first she feared her father would try and bar her from the mission, but she quickly realized that her father had given up on her. She wouldn't have to worry about what her father would think on her performance for this mission. She only had her own standards to measure up to now. "I'm uh, I mean, my name is Hyuuga Hinata, it's a pleasure," she managed to stammer out. She did her best to inject some confidence in herself and not fidget during her introduction.

Rock Lee stepped forward to introduce himself next. "It is an honor to meet you sir. My name is Rock Lee and I'm glad to be put on this Cell. I will be saddened to Leave Gai-Sensei's side but I am positive that we all can complete this mission with great success," he finished with the very heavily used 'good guy pose'.

Jiraiya's face fell, this kid acted just like Gai did at that age. Feeling a headache coming on he looked at Naruto briefly. "You don't have to bother kid, I already know you," he said in mock disinterest. Naruto stuck out his tongue at Jiraiya in response.

"Hinata, you have the Hyuuga chakra control and have taken a slight interest in healing from what I've heard." He did his best to give her a friendly smile.

Naruto heard that and immediately thought back to the time during the Chuunin exam. There had been a balm that she had given him, and it had been pretty good at aiding his already monstrous healing ability.

"There is a retired Medic-Nin by the name of Chiyo at Sunagakure that could teach you a lot of medical Jutsus, at least that's what Tsunade hopes. I however have doubts about her willingness to help us," he gave a sidelong look at Tsunade.

"Yes Jiraiya, your feelings are clear on that matter, do continue," Tsunade interjected.

"Right, right…anyways even I can understand the need for more Medic-Nin, it's something our village has been decidedly lacking." He knew it was a jibe at Tsunade, but she deserved it for roping him into this whole thing. "She believes you have the potential to become a Medic-Nin," he added matter-of-factly. He didn't miss the shocked expression on her face, he also didn't miss Naruto noticing Hinata's shocked expression.

"That's so cool Hinata! You'd make a great Medic-Nin, that'd certainly show those stuffy Hyuugas that your just as good as any other Ninja!" Naruto grinned widely and slapped Hinata on the back approvingly. The thick-headed boy didn't even notice her embarrassed blush at his confidence in her.

"Th-thank you Naruto-kun," she wish she had more confidence to talk to the boy who always had the words to encourage her.

The hermit Ninja didn't miss the way Hinata and Naruto acted toward each other. Deciding he'd better worry about the situation between those two later Jiraiya continued on to the next member of his new cell. "Rock Lee, off the top of my head I don't know any Taijutsu experts that could teach you anything you don't already know. When it comes to self training you're the most efficient member of the Cell from what I've heard so that should help. Tsunade has however told me that Gaara of the sand has requested to train with both you and Naruto. While I'm training Naruto you two can do whatever I guess."

Jiraiya then finally turned his attention to his apprentice. "Naruto, the original idea was for me to train you one-on-one. While those two are busy training with the Sand Ninja I will mostly be training you, that hasn't changed. I admit that will be pretty difficult seeing as not only do I not have any intimate knowledge of the Hyuuga Blood Limit or much beyond the simplest healing Jutsus, I'm not exactly what you'd consider a Taijutsu expert either…but I'm sure someone as cool as me will think of something," he laughed at that last part.

Tsunade reclined in her chair, propping her feet up on the desk. It was time for this meeting to end. "Cell fifteen you are now dismissed for the day. You have four days to do whatever you want. On the fifth day report to the main gate, there you will leave with Jiraiya to Sunagakure, bye-bye." She waved at them with a smile on her face. The new cell slowly filtered out of the Hokage's office. Hinata was the last to leave and bowed respectfully to the Hokage before exiting. She noticed that their new Sensei remained in the room.

A man with bandanna wrapped over his head, and a senbon needle between his teeth ran past them into the Hokage's office. Genma immediately began making his report to the Hokage. Kotetsu quickly shut the doors and moved to stand guard. The new teammates glanced at the door before continuing out of the tower. Each member now filled with thoughts of what was to come.

Naruto and Rock Lee both felt this was a great opportunity, Naruto was glad to have some of his friends along on his training journey now and Lee was thinking about how he could learn and experience many things. For them it would be a great beginning.

Hinata felt much apprehension and worry, she didn't want to fail in some way on this important mission. She remembered her Nindo, the one she gained from Naruto. she had promised her father she would succeed in this training mission, she resolved herself not to go back on her word or run away from her responsibilities. She hadn't realize it yet but she had walked into the tower with a sense of self-doubt, but had come out with something different. Now, as she walked out of the tower she walked straighter than when she went in. This was a beginning of something great for her.

All Jiraiya could think of was how much he was going to pay back Tsunade. The second he got out of the tower he was going to find some aspirin and do some 'research' to take his mind off of the recent events. He felt the beginning of a great headache come over him.

Later, in a sparsely lit room three figures stood bathed in the working lights of many computers and other machines. The one closest to the only door in the room spoke first.

"Orochimaru-Sama it has been reported that Uzumaki Naruto and your old teammate have exited the Hokage tower with two others."

The snake Sanin looked at his platinum haired subordinate with eyes like the dead "Ku ku ku is Jiraiya really stupid enough to take on a new cell at his age? I gave him far to much credit."

Kabuto didn't think that anyone else would ever be able to match his Lord's mastery over the sneer. "This does also mean that he will not be able to act upon us in any way if he is encumbered by that cell Orochimaru-Sama."

A third voice rang out in the darkness "nothing they can do will be able to stop us, people like them have no idea what they're doing and they'll be killed off eventually." The speakers eyes spun madly as he spoke. In darkness like this Kabuto had a hard time telling who was who sometimes.


	2. 02 Sprouting Leaves

**I don't own Naruto, please read and review.  
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**This is the revised Chapter 02 with much better grammar and some scene changes. Also, please visit my anime blog and drop a comment at acinonyx(dot)wordpress(dot)com, the link is also on my main page, please spread the word to your friends as hopefully this fic and the blog will generate traffic for each other somehow. ****  
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A day after the forming of cell fifteen found Naruto sitting on a bench in one of the more remote areas of the village. The bench he sat on was on the side of a wide road with many houses and apartment complexes situated around it. The afternoon sun had long ago been swallowed up by the darkening sky which was filled with clouds of varying grays, and a strong wind blew blowing his hair in all directions. A cool and clean smell permeated the air signaling the onset of rain. He couldn't help but think this weather was odd considering yesterday had been completely cloudless. 

The normally energetic boy had both of his arms braced around the back of the bench. His head leaned back, allowing him a perfect view of the turbulent sky. He had decided on holding off on his extensive training for the little break he had been given. It was a decision he was beginning to regret for he hadn't really thought of what he would do for the four days if he wasn't training. After spending an indeterminable amount of time watching the clouds far overhead roll across the heavens a loud sound pierced the calm atmosphere.

His stomach's growling had never steered him wrong with it's intentions before. The only thing he could do in a situation like this was give it what it wanted. Naruto slowly collected himself before resolving himself to the course that had been laid out for him. He gave up a few stretches in an attempt to inject some energy back into his body before he started off towards a certain restaurant.

After finishing up with his warmup he was surprised to find someone standing not but a few feet away down his intended path. For a second he had a hard time placing who it was, but this person was hardly unrecognizable. Hyuuga Neji was one of the last people he had expected to see today.

The Hyuuga branch house genius looked very different than his cousin Hinata. Despite that the same pale orbs that marked the Hyuuga line were prominent on his chiseled and angular face. A pleasant change in the boy was the expression of smoldering anger that used to mar his face was replaced by a cool calm, making him look like some kind of regal statue. His raven colored hair still hung down to his waist with a small tie near the end. For this day at least he had traded his old white shirt and gray pants for a white formal kimono. Naruto could not figure out why such a change was made, but in an odd way it suited Neji.

"Hey Neji, what's up?" Naruto continued walking forward, unfazed.

"Good afternoon Naruto, I'm glad I was able to find you before my cell departs for wave country. We leave tomorrow and I must admit I've had very little free time of late." Neji fell in line next to Naruto, deciding to follow him wherever he was going.

"Is that so? My cell is supposed to be heading for wind country in four days. I was beginning to think I wouldn't see anyone before I left. Everyone seems to be so busy that I couldn't even see Sakura-Chan. Oh yeah, did you know that Hinata and Fuzzy Brows are on my new cell?" Naruto thought Neji might be surprised to hear that bit of news.

Neji just smiled, it seemed Naruto always tried to cram too much information when he talked. "Both Hinata-sama and Lee told me about their assignment to your cell. It is good to know someone I can trust will be able to look after Hinata-sama."

Naruto hadn't been expecting that. "What do you mean by that?" He couldn't think of a reason why Hinata needed anyone looking after her or anything like that.

_I feel like I should be remembering something, ._ That something tickled at the back of his mind, if it was important he should be remembering what it was... shouldn't he?

"Naruto," Neji sounded a bit disappointed. "I told you during the Chuunin exam about how Hinata-sama was almost abducted by a Cloud-Nin, and how that led to my fathers death. Don't you remember that?" _Is it possible I was wrong about him?_

Seeing the serious expression on his companion's face Naruto didn't think this was going to be just a friendly chat. He figured he should pay attention at least if this was about Hinata. "Yeah I remember what you said then. Is that what you're worried about, that someone might abduct her or something… because of your bloodline?" He stuffed his hands in his pockets for wont of anything better to do with them.

"It is a possibility that she could be in danger yes," the normally dour youth seemed very concerned for his younger cousin.

Naruto didn't like being led around in a conversation, and thats exactly what it felt like right now. "Hinata went out on missions with her old cell right, what's so different about this time?"

"In the past Hinata-sama's missions have never taken her very far from the village before. Your cell will be traveling to a foreign, albeit allied country where your knowledge of the area will be next to nothing. Your mission will than take you to rain country. This country has attempted to gain our bloodline in the past as well."

A worried look past over the Naruto's face. "Oh, I didn't think so many people would want your bloodline, but what does-."

"Hinata-sama was disowned from being heir to the Main House and declared a liability by her father Hiashi-sama. He has since replaced her with her more skilled sister Hanabi-sama. Even though Hinata-sama is no longer of the Main House the threat of having the clan bloodline stolen is still present. Hiashi-sama had a hard time placating the leaders of our clan just to allow her participation on your mission."

The two began to enter the more heavily traveled areas of the village. The foot traffic increased in number and diversity as the buildings along the road grew larger and closer together.

"Wait a minute, if her father disowned her because she's useless to them why is he letting her go on a training mission. If what you say is true than why should he care if she gets stronger?" From what he'd heard so far the Hokage hopeful wasn't forming the best opinion of Hinata's father. "Especially if her bloodline is in danger or whatever." How could any father dare treat his own daughter like nothing more than a liability?

"It is true that when she made Gennin Hiashi-sama declared she was of no use to the Hyuuga and her well being was not his concern anymore. It is also true that he has been trying to mend fences with Hinata-sama as of late." Neji only had a smile as he saw Naruto's confused suspension of belief.

The Hyuuga genius had to admit that the boy walking next to him might have well saved the relationship between father and daughter not to mention his own relationship with them.

He continued "Hinata-sama told him of the things you said to her during the Chuunin exam; of how you told her to believe in herself and of how well she continued to fight with those words. I also told him of what I experienced in our own battle, and how you changed me by showing me that destiny is not fixed from birth. I believe with your encouragement and the protection of someone as trustworthy as Jiraiya-sama that Hinata-sama can become far stronger. Hiashi-sama has agreed to my argument and convinced the clan council. Their decision was that she could be reinstated as the heir should she become a Chuunin as a result of your mission. This is the reason they are risking such a potential risk to their bloodline."

Naruto felt like some of this was a little beyond him. "What if she doesn't want to be the heir anymore? It seems to me like she'd do much better without all that pressure. I mean, from what I've heard of the Main House she doesn't seem to fit in all that well with them." The two started to encounter fellow ninja mixed in with regular villagers as they made the heart of the city. It was hard not to find some kind of foot traffic in all parts of Konoha at this time.

_I think I can put my fears to rest. I know he will look out for her._ Neji smiled "That is for Hinata-sama to decide for herself. We have always been the strongest clan in Konoha, yet because of this Hinata is constantly pressured to be the best, and this is not what she needs. What she needs-."

A look of concern found its way back to Naruto's face. "Why are the Hyuuga asking this of her, and why so suddenly?" He had a bad feeling he was being drawn into a very complicated situation with all of this. "Doesn't Hinata get a say in any of this, especially since the Hyuuga seemed more interested in protecting their asses than what she wants?" The more Neji told him of Hinata's situation the more he felt his anger rising.

Neji continued on as if he hand'nt heard Naruto's interjection. "-What she needs is a friend Naruto. I believe you are the one that can not only encourage her when she doesn't believe in herself, but can also get her to open up and realize her potential. If Hinata-sama were to realize what she can do I have no doubt she'd make an excellent ninja, with or without coming back to the Main House."

Naruto wanted to ask why Neji was asking so much of him, but decided he probably didn't want to know. "I don't want to have anything to do with something that will force Hinata to do something she doesn't want". The blond haired boy knew that they were finally coming upon Ichiraku Ramen. It would only take two more blocks of walking before they made it there.

"I'm not asking this of you to make Hinata-sama a better tool for the Hyuuga. I'm just asking this as a friend to be _her_ friend. Talk to her and confide in her. she needs someone to believe in her far more than she needs bodyguards and unreasonable family members"

Naruto relaxed after hearing that. "If your just asking me to be her friend than I don't think I'll have a problem with that. I already consider Hinata a friend" he felt like he could trust Neji on this.

"Thank you Naruto. I can rest assured that she will do well with you as a friend". Neji took notice of Naruto's more relaxed nature after what he had said.

"Right right, but I'd rather not have to deal with this whole clan succession mess if I could".

Neji had to resist the urge to smack his forehead. He would have sworn Naruto would have gotten it by now. "Naruto, you told me you were going to change the Hyuuga when you become Hokage, yet you don't seem to know much at all about our clan. There are many dynamics to consider and understand. You're a person that likes to talk a lot, but Hinata-sama is someone that shies away from most conversation. If you were to ask her about the Hyuuga clan it would give you something to talk about". At that point Neji actually let out a small chuckle.

"You seem to be trying awfully hard to get _me _to talk to Hinata, what's all this about?" It was obvious that Neji wasn't going to answer that question, but he felt compelled to ask it anyway. Naruto had no idea why Neji suddenly changed the topic to being about him talking with Hinata.

"At any rate Naruto I'll let you get to your lunch. Before I go I have something for you to deliver." Neji noticed how Naruto was trying hard not to stare at the menu of the ramen stand they had just arrived at. He knew it was time for him to go lest Naruto forget his manners and just start ordering food. He reached a hand into the folds of his Kimono and pulled out a decent sized scroll.

"This is a scroll of Jyuuken and other Hyuuga techniques for Hinata-sama. This is for her to study during your mission. In case you loose it there's a seal on it that will instantly destroy the contents if it's opened. It's an old Hyuuga style seal, and only a Hyuuga would know how to open it. I was late finishing this for her so I won't be able to give it to her before I leave. Could you please give it to her when next you see her?" He'd only mentioned the seal so Naruto himself wouldn't try and take a peek.

Naruto took the proffered scroll and stuffed it in his pants pocket. "You're still a weird guy Neji, but I'm glad you've made up with Hinata…and her father. I guess the next time we see each other we'll all be Chuunin". He thrust his hand at Neji for a friendly shake, giving him his best grin.

The taller boy took Naruto's hand, shaking it in a friendly manner while staring him square in the eyes. "I know you'll be even stronger than the Naruto you are now, and I can't wait to try myself against you again." Neji held Naruto's gaze for a moment longer than finally turned and began walking away from the ramen stand. The last thing Neji heard from Naruto gave him more peace of mind than he expected.

Naruto somehow knew that he didn't need to voice his ascent to the the challenge that Neji had given him. "Don't worry Neji, I don't exactly know what you expect from me, but I'll look out for her." After Neji disappeared into the crowd Naruto turned around and walked under the curtain of the ramen stand. He plopped himself down on his favorite seat with a heavy sigh. Neji had said a lot of odd and confusing things. He had a feeling he'd be thinking about his a lot now too, just what he needed. He almost would have said he'd lost his appetite, but suddenly the smell of freshly prepared ingredients made the decision for him.

Konoha's Azure Beast Rock Lee had plenty of things to do before the deadline of his cell's departure came. The time not spent training intensively with Gai-sensei would most likely be spent convincing his aunt that he would be alright for the time he would be gone.

Lee was currently doing lateral push-ups with only his right hand alongside his teacher. _The leaf knows I haven't exactly inspired her confidence in me by being sent to the hospital a while ago. Not to mention I didn't even wait for my injuries to heal before rushing off into combat. _Lee knew that she knew there was no choice for her but to let him go. She could still make him feel guilty about leaving however.

"What's the matter Lee, have you had enough training for today? You don't even seem to be breaking a sweat!" Konoha's Taijutsu expert Gai spoke up in between intoning "767" and "768" as he powered through his own rigorous training.

Lee hadn't even realized that he had stopped doing his push ups while thinking about his aunt. His teacher must have thought it was due to overexertion. "Ah, no Gai-sensei I was only thinking about the mission before me. I won't be coming back for awhile and I was just worrying about a few things." He quickly struggled to synchronize his number of push-ups with those of his sensei.

When Lee and Gai both reached the count of "800" they stopped, and fell neatly into sitting positions. Lee looked up to the sky as let himself rest from his exerting exercise. The clouds high overhead were almost pregnant with rain. It looked like they would have to head indoors if they didn't want to get soaked in the ensuing rain.

Deciding that staying dry was better than getting some unnecessary rest Lee shot up into a standing position. "Gai-Sensei I think it's time we went inside before we find ourselves drenched."

Gai likewise shoved himself effortlessly into a standing position to face his pupil. "Hah-hah! I believe you are right Lee. Maybe we can find another place to train." To say Gai and his pupil were look-alikes would be a gross understatement. The only real distinguishing features between the two was Gai's flak jacket, not to mention the difference in height and age. Lee got his manor of dress and appearance from his sensei for some reason so it was always like looking in a mirror for them.

The training ground they had been working out in was actually the same one that Lee had found Naruto in the previous day. They left the same way he had yesterday, making their way towards the village.

It was as if the raging storm was trying to turn the leaf village into a lake village. There had been no real beginning to the torrential rain, it just sprang into existence without warning. Hinata had been one of many to get caught in the rain. She had been on her way back home after visiting with her old teammate Aburame Shino at his home when the rainstorm had suddenly hit. There was no way she was going to make it home without getting sopping wet so she had to find a suitably dry place to wait it out. After only a few moments running through the rain-soaked streets she came across an open shop door and ducked inside, thankful for a quick solution to her problem.

What greeted her the moment she walked into the shop was a veritable assault on the senses. There was a vast array of bright colors decorating almost every inch of the large room, and the sheer variety of smells was overwhelming. The combination of the two was both smothering and stimulating, held together in an odd balance. She was standing in the most beautiful flower shop she had ever seen.

"Welcome to our shop, how may I help you-" the speaker's sudden greeting stopped as abruptly as it had started.

Hinata turned quickly to the sound of the voice. She was slightly surprised at who it was that greeted her.

"Aaaaah Hinata-san, what brings you to the Yamanaka's humble flower shop?" a young girl approached the timid Hinata, smiling warmly.

Yamanaka Ino was considered to be the most beautiful out of all Konoha's female Gennin. To retain such a title she certainly spent enough time keeping it that way. Her light blond hair held a prefect glossy sheen, and at the moment was held up in an array of bouncy curls. Her face bore the complexion of one who stood for no foreign mark marring her perfect skin, and her blue eyes sparkled with a love for life. She was currently decked out in a dark blue knee-length skirt accompanied by a matching pastel blue halter top.

Hinata knew Ino well enough through the girl's sizable reputation. Ever since she had been young Hinata had heard of Ino's popularity and beauty. Ino was always very outspoken and seemed to almost possess a dual personality at times. Sometimes Ino could be very friendly, and at other times she could fly off the cuff at the slightest provocation. The Hyuuga heir didn't want to experience one of her more disagreeable moods if she could help it.

"Ummm you don't have to address me as -san Ino-san," the instant she said that Hinata knew it sounded a little odd.

"Hah, likewise Hinata-chan," Ino smiled again. It looked like she was in one of her better moods…for now.

Hinata smiled meekly in response. "I didn't know your family owned a flower shop Ino-chan," she stumbled for a split second over the suffix, but recovered in time.

Ino quickly glanced over all the shelves and display cases full of flowers of varying shapes and sizes. It was true that there probably wasn't a better flower shop in the entire village, yet she didn't think that someone like the shy Hinata would have any interest in flowers. "So did you come to buy some flowers-" she took a quick look outside "-ooor did the rain chase you in here?" she added with a playful grin.

Hinata was a little embarrassed at that question. It's true she ran in here because of the rain, but she did have a vested interest in flower pressing to her name. This also forced her to note that there was a good deal of water dirpping from her to the shop floor. "Ah I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring water into your store." She quickly looked around for something she could use to dry off with.

"Nah it's okay, I'm minding the store right now anyway-" Ino took one of her clean towels from behind the register and profered it to Hinata "-and it's not like the water would need you as an excuse to get everywhere." Ino had to admit to herself that she felt an odd urge to be extra nice to the girl before her. It was an urge she never felt the need for around 'forehead girl', the only other girl she really knew. "While you're here I guess I could show you some of our flowers." She retrieved a towel from the counter and handed it to the wet girl.

Hinata forgot about her prior embarrassment, and a small smile creped over her lips. "I'd like that in fact, uh, actually I do flower pressings as a hobby." It occurred to her that she could do well to mention a hobby that shared roots with the other girl's.

Now Ino was interested "oh yeah, which flowers do you like?" She'd be the first to admit that flowers weren't her favorite thing, but this was the first time she had talked to anyone who had even a_slight _interest in the subject.

Suddenly being put on the spot, Hinata tried to remember what flowers she fancied. "I guess I really like iris' and violets. I think they're the prettiest out of the ones I've collected". She honestly never knew she'd be able to talk so easily with someone like Ino. This wasn't how she'd ever imagined a conversation like this would have gone between them.

"Oh really? Both flowers have a strong meaning of faithfulness behind them as well as other strong interpersonal feelings. They can compliment each other pretty well in a spring arrangement." The last person Ino thought she'd have hit it off with would be this shy and mostly introverted girl, but she had heard of stranger things, maybe.

Hinata was instantly impressed by that insight "wow, I guess you learn a lot from working in a flower shop. I never would have guessed there was such a deeper meaning to them." In fact, she had never given any thought to such things, assuming that no-one would ever have taken the time to characterize flowers in such a way.

Ino smiled. She was sensing Hinata probably didn't talk this much on a normal basis, so now was as good a chance as any to ask. "So Hinata-chan you've been assigned to one of these new cells right, who'd you get paired with?" She hadn't seen hide nor hair of Choji or Shikamaru in the past few days. Hinata was actually the first of the other Gennin she had seen since she herself had been reassigned.

The question caught Hinata off guard, she hadn't been expecting such a rapid shift in topic. "Umm I've been assigned to a cell with Lee-san and Naruto-kun, and I think our cell leader Jiraiya is one of the legendary Sannin." She had been more comfortable discussing flowers.

"Oh yeah, really? Well unfortunately I got stuck with Kiba and Ten-Ten. We haven't even met our leader yet, some old friend of the Hokage's or something."

_So she's one of Kiba's new teammates_. "Kiba-kun's not a bad guy, he's very reliable and energetic. He always knows how to get a smile out of." Small talk was not one of her strong points.

"I honestly think Kiba's a bit too energetic, and that dog of his is just as bad, and it sheds. That Ten-Ten girl seems to be a little uptight and bossy, but I guess I'll have to make do." Ino heaved a heavy sigh "from what I hear our Sensei is supposed to be real batty, and a friend of the Hokage or something like that." She took the used towel from Hinata when she was done drying off. "You speak highly of a former teammate of course, but what do you think about your new teammates?" This coming from someone with as many personality defects as the next person.

Ino turned and walked over to the counter forcing Hinata to follow suit. The temporary proprietress offered her guest a stool from behind the counter then promptly hopped up on the counter next to the register. The downpour outside didn't seem like it would let out anytime soon, it sounded like a thousand small rocks were pelting the roof.

Hinata thanked Ino for the seat than decided she had to answer the question. "Lee-san is a good friend of Neji-nii-san, and so far he seems to be a really good guy." Talking about someone as much of a stranger to her as Lee was easy compared to the thought of trying to talk about Naruto. Every time she talked about him around Kiba he always teased her about it, and she didn't want to think what someone as gossipy as Ino could do. "Naruto-Kun… is a very hard worker and always does his best. And he always has kind things to say." She ignored the smirk she thought she saw appear on the other girl's lips. "Our Sensei and Naruto-kun already seem to know each other. He does seem to have his quirks." Hinata never said anything bad about anyone if she could help it, saying Jiraiya's personality was just 'quirky' was proof enough of this.

"Ooooh, you sure seem to have a lot of good things to say about Naruto. I think even Sakura-forehead doesn't have that many good things to say about him, and she's his teammate. Are you sure we're talking about the same Naruto?"

Hinata winced. She knew she should have kept silent about Naruto. "Naruto-kun is, he…uh-" She futilely grasped for something to say.

Ino was many things, but unnescesarily cruel was not one of them. "Don't worry about it Hinata-chan. I think the only one who doesn't know already is the dense boy himself." The subject of Naruto was obviously something sensitive so she decided that it would be best to avoid it entirely. "So where's your cell going to go, or are they staying here?"

Hinata was silently glad Ino was letting that subject drop, but she didn't like the way Ino had said 'know'. "Oh no, we're going to be traveling to Sunagakure and than hopefully taking the Chuunin exam at Amegakure."

Ino jumped down off the counter to check out one of the windows. It had occurred to her that the sound of rain had stopped, replacing the soothing murmur of rain with a relatively dull silence. "Must be exciting to go to another country. Our cell is staying here unfortunately. I would love to have a change of scenery every now and again," she sounded slightly miffed as she stared out the window. The sky outside was still a rolling mass of gray, but the pounding accompaniment of the rain had stopped for now.

She turned her head to look back at the girl still sitting on the stool. "Well, the rain has let up for now so you should go home while you can. I might as well close up shop at this rate. It doesn't look like I'll be selling anything today anyway." Her remark was accompanied by a wry grin.

Hinata shot out of the stool upon hearing this. She quickly walked to one of the heavily cluttered product tables near the door where she picked up a small pine bonsai. After a few seconds of careful scrutiny she made her decision and brought it to the counter. "Um, I'd like to buy this," she thrust the plant at Ino. In truth she had been eying the cute miniature tree during the time she had been talking with the other girl. It would be a cute thing to have in her room, and she felt the need to repay the hospitality she had been shown.

Ino didn't even bother to go behind the counter. "Don't worry about it Hinata-chan think of it as a gift from a friend." She gave the shy girl a reassuring grin. "You really should get going if you want to make it home before it starts raining again though."

Hinata hesitated wondering what she should do. After realizing that any further offer to pay for the plant would be rejected she decided that her new friend was correct. Hinata gave a respectful bow to Ino "Thank you very much for your hospitality, and the bonsai," she held up the aforementioned plant.

Ino walked Hinata to the door of her shop. The bonsai toting girl seemed reluctant to leave at first, but after some more insistence she started walking down the road. Ino had heard that Hinata posessed very few friends, if any. She found nothing wrong with the girl, but it was obvious that she was very lonely. Thinking on this, she suddenly had a strong impulse to call out to her. "Hey, Hinata-chan, don't be afraid to come back by next time even if our shop is closed. Friends are always welcome at our home!"

Hinata spun around and stared at the yelling girl. She never had a friend outside of her cellmates before, and the last friend she had expected to make would have been Ino. She didn't take too well to yelling so she simply gave a meek wave before continuing down the road. Lately things seemed to be getting better for her day by day. As she hurried home she had to wonder what she was going to do with the plant if she wasn't going to be around to care for it. _Maybe I can ask Neji-nii-san to take care of it._

Rock Lee stepped out of gym's interior and was greeted by the cool night air. The cloud cover that had threatened Konoha for most of the day must have dispersed for the most part considering the amount of stars he could see in the night sky now. There were puddles of varying sizes doting the ground, and the gentle breeze running through the streets carried the pleasing smell of fresh rain. For such a rough storm it certainly left a pleasant presence behind.

After the rain had started it's assault on Konoha Lee and Gai had proceded to the gym only to have to quit a couple of hours later. A messenger had come for the elite Jounin and requested his presence before the Hokage to take on a S-class mission. After a lot of heartfelt and youthful crying, goodbyes, and pointless advice Gai had departed and left Lee to train by himself for the rest of the day.

After a prolonged stroll through the village Lee finally returned home. 'Home' for him was not much more than a shabby two bedroom house in one of the poorer sections of the village. His parents had died when he was very young and the only remaining family he had was his mother's sister. She had tried hard to support them over the years, but with only her deceased husband's penchant to live off of there wasn't much she could afford. That didn't matter one bit to him, her love and support was all he had ever needed from her.

As he entered the house he could already hear her snoring. It seemed he missed the chance to talk to her again. Lee quickly tiptoed the distance to his room and quietly shut the door.

The walls of his small room were decorated with different wall-scrolls depicting different training methods as well as some random uplifting messages. The only other things that decorated his room was a harshly used chest of drawers where he kept all of his things, a nightstand complete with lamp and clock, and a somewhat comfy bed.

Lee sat down on his bed as he pulled the string on his lamp. No matter how tired he was he had a nightly ritual to take care of. He pulled out a thick, emerald colored leather journal complete with matching pen. He had received it as a birthday present from his aunt last year and it summarily replaced his previous three journals. He began the task of writing the days happenings down with a practiced hand.

His mind wandered as he quickly jotted down the highlights of the day. _I really need to talk to auntie about my mission. It's only a few days away and I haven't even told her yet. The good thing is she'll still get my weekly pay so I know she'll be alright._ In the space of only a few minutes he had almost written everything down. _However I must see this mission through or Gai-Sensei would be disappointed. I must believe the fires of youth will burn for me the path I must take._

When he finished writing the day's passage he quietly closed his journal and slipped it back into it's drawer. It was now time to change for bed. As he rummaged through his dresser for his required sleeping attire his thoughts skipped ahead on the few days he had left.

The sun shown high in the sky over Konohagakure, a complete departure from the weather of the past few days. It was almost noon and cell fifteen had assembled in front of the main gate, well, almost everyone. There was still an important member of their cell missing.

"Jeez, where the hell is that good-for-nothing Ero-sennin?" Naruto held his hands clasped behind his head, a peeved expression distorting his face.

"I'm sure he's just taking care of some last minute things Naruto-kun. We weren't actually told what time to meet at the gates so maybe he…" Hinata trailed off, unsure of what exactly their Sensei could be doing.

In truth Tsunade hadn't actually set an exact time to meet at the gate. The three assembled Gennin had met yesterday to set a time they would meet up at. They had now been waiting over an hour on the muddy main road outside Konoha's gates for Jiraiya to show up.

"Someone as legendary and respected as Jiraiya-Sensei will surely have a good reason why he hasn't come sooner." Lee was somewhat distracted by keeping his focus on concentrating what little chakra control he had at his feet to stay above the sucking mud.

"You guys don't know him like I do, he's probably doing something perverted at a bathhouse somewhere. Why do I always have to get the weird Senseis?" At this point Naruto would give anything to have someone normal take care of his training if it was only just the once.

It tuned out they didn't have to wait for very much longer. A small discharge of smoke erupted in front of the assembled Gennins. Once the coiling smoke dissipated they could make out their cell leader standing before them. Naruto was the only one not surprised to see a big red hand shaped mark on his face.

"Oi, you were caught peeping again weren't you, you old pervert?" Naruto pointed an accusatory finger at the obviously guilty man.

His only response was to shoot his original pupil with a reproachful glare. "Are the three of you ready to set off?" He did his best to sound like he wasn't angry at something.

Almost in unison the three walked over to retrieve their over-stuffed backpacks from one of the only dry spots along the gate's wall. They hefted their bags with various survival gear and personal effects onto their backs and rejoined their Sensei by the open gates.

"Yeah, we've been ready."

"I've got everything I'll need Jiraiya-sensei."

"Umm I am ready to go as well."

Jiraiya himself had only a small shoulder bag with him filled with god only knew what. "Well then cell fifteen it looks like our mission begins as of now."

The four of them finally departed from the gates of their hometown. The chance to participate in a mission that their own Hokage had deemed vital to the survival of the village didn't come around everyday. The frog hermit let his three charges walk ahead of him while he was content with just strolling lazily behind them.

"ALL RIGHT FINALLY OUR MISSION BEGINS!" Naruto couldn't contain his excitement as he pumped his hands into the air. His infectious mood carried onto his two teammates, and they felt themselves smiling despite all the danger they knew they were sure to face in the upcoming months.


	3. 03 Leaving Home

**I don't own Naruto**

It had been a few hours now that cell 15 had spent on the road. The slow pace their sensei Jiraiya had set for them afforded many chances to take in the landscape of the Konoha area. It seemed to them that there was anywhere within the land of fire that one could escape the encompassing noise of rustling leaves. The further they seemed to get from their village the less the presence of rain from yesterday was showing itself. Pools of water no longer dotted the roadside, and the crunch of dry leaves underfoot only further punctuated the fact that the rainstorm had not passed this area.

Naruto, Hinata, and Rock Lee had spent the past hours with idle chatter while busying their eyes with counting the different kind of trees they passed by. Currently Naruto was walking in between Lee and Hinata while Jiraiya walked behind them with only the occasional comment to let them know he was actually still there.

"Jeez how many different trees are there?" Naruto had tried to keep count but he lost track a couple miles back.

Hinata smiled, thinking it was nice that both she and Naruto-Kun had been thinking the same thing. "I've counted twenty-two different kind so far Naruto-Kun".

"Ah, I must have missed two than" Lee had also been trying his hand at counting trees.

The middle boy smiled at that. "Well Hinata has that Byakugan to see everywhere so I guess that helps".

"Actually Naruto-Kun my Byakugan only works when I activate it". Hinata didn't want to prove Naruto-Kun wrong, but she thought it would be better if he knew.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head apologetically. "Ah, sorry Hinata I guess your just more observant huh?" His offhand comment caused Hinata to give a slight blush.

"Maybe you're just oblivious" Jiraiya added dryly from the rear.

"Ah shut up" Naruto shot back, a little embarrassed.

Their conversations had gone on like this since they had left the village. By this point in their journey the sun had already past its zenith and begun its path to setting. The legendary toad Sanin was counting the minutes until, in the very least, Naruto began asking him his usual annoying questions.

Perhaps because the three Gennins had been watching the trees so closely they each noticed the same thing. The further they got from Konoha the further spaced the trees became. By this point they began noticing clearings spaced out within the slowly thinning forest.

Naruto liked trees as much as the next person, but he figured there were more important things to talk about. "I wonder how long it's going to take us before we reach Sunagakure?" he was beginning to wonder if they would ever see anything besides trees anytime soon.

Lee took on the task of answering "If we continue at this pace we should be able to reach Sunagakure in…" Lee struggled to do the calculations in his head quickly. He had studied a map before leaving his house earlier in the morning.

"It'll take us four days to reach wind country and about another day to reach Sunagakure itself". Jiraiya had brought himself closer so that now he was directly behind his charges.

"There's a major city on the way there right?" Hinata had only a limited knowledge of the continents geography. She remembered a few things about the city from her lessons.

"Very good Hinata-Chan. On our second night out we should have reached Akirahara and we'll be staying there". His smile was evident on his voice.

Hinata was not used to being praised for anything. She decided that it was definitely something she liked. "Thank you Jiraiya-Sensei".

Naruto shared in Jiraiya's sentiments, but something about the open pervert calling Hinata '-Chan' made him uneasy. It looked like he might have to watch their sensei around Hinata for her own good.

"Oh, I take it we'll be staying outdoors the rest of the time". Ninja were required to keep some form of outdoor sleeping supplies on any extended mission so it wasn't like he was unprepared.

Jiraiya finally decided it was time to join his team so he took up a position walking next to Lee. "That's right, we can stop In Akirahara for some new supplies but we'll be roughing it the rest of the time".

"Well if we're going to be on the road for this long before we even reach Sunagakure why don't you teach us some new Jutsus or something".

Ah, there was the question he had been waiting for. Jiraiya threw up his hands and shrugged "You know Naruto there's more to a ninja's training besides learning new Jutsus".

"You're just saying that because you're too lazy to teach us anything". Naruto had been expecting something underhanded like that from him.

"You seem to have forgotten all I've taught you already" Jiraiya countered.

Hinata and Lee walked in silence observing how master and pupil interacted. Hinata didn't want to hurt Naruto's case by suggesting some other topic of study, and Lee didn't feel like it was the right time to bring up the fact he couldn't use Jutsus just yet.

"Well this is different, it's your job to teach us useful Jutsus and whatnot now right?" Naruto had to wonder why his two teammates hadn't jumped in to help him yet.

"Fine fine, first why don't we let your friends tell me what Jutsus they have learned so far so I can see where I stand with all this".

Hinata didn't really want to admit to the appallingly small amount of Jutsus she knew. She knew Naruto-Kun must have a ton of useful Jutsus he could use, and she didn't want him to think she was useless because of that. "I can use the my Byakugan, Bunshin, Henge, and some Jyuuken". She blushed with embarrassment. "I've also learned the walk-on-water technique".

Naruto did exactly the opposite of what she had been expecting. "That's pretty cool Hinata. I bet you'll be a lot better at learning new Jutsus than I am. Maybe I could even teach you Kage Bunshin". He practically beamed with confidence at her. She had to resist blushing again, this time for a different reason than just embarrassment.

Lee spoke up next. "I've never been able to use Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, but I believe that I can become an excellent ninja on Taijutsu alone, that is everything to me, that is my Nindo". He spoke so passionately that it caught Jiraiya off guard. With conviction like that it was possible that the green spandex clad boy could achieve what he wanted to.

Hinata felt kind of bad for her earlier discomfort. Naruto had even cheered her up, but Rock Lee hadn't even been bothered by the fact that he didn't know ANY Jutsus. In fact he thrived on his inability to perform Jutsus.

Lee started like he just remembered something. "Actually I also have been taught the walk-on-water technique by Gai-Sensei". He smiled sheepishly at that admission. "That's about all I can do though".

Jiraiya assessed what he now knew of his pupils abilities. He still had the basic idea of what he wanted to teach Naruto in his head, but Hinata and Lee posed problems. Hyuugas were usually taught by their own clan and possessed a specific method of training so he wasn't really sure how he was going to handle that yet. Lee posed a different kind of problem. The boy could only use Taijutsu and that was something he never excelled at himself. He'd have to think of some kind of training regime quick if he wanted to keep his sanity.

All of a sudden Naruto began blindly rummaging in his pack for something. After a moment he finally produced what he had been searching for. He leaned closer to Hinata and held out a rather large scroll to her. "This is something I was told to give you from Neji. He said that there was a bunch of Hyuuga stuff in Jutsus and stuff in it".

She hesitantly took it from him and held it before her considering it closely. She had never seen a scroll like this anywhere in the Hyuuga's possession before. "Did he say where he got this?"

"He made it himself I guess, that's what he said anyways". He was glad Neji made the scroll, it seemed like Hinata was pretty grateful for it. "Oh yeah, he did say that only you could remove the seal on it. I guess it's a Hyuuga thing".

Jiraiya stretched out his arms in relief. That seemed to take care of one of his worries for the moment. If he didn't have to worry about Hinata's training he could focus on trying to figure out what to do with Lee, and Naruto of course.

"Thank you Naruto-Kun". Carefully placing the scroll within her pack she could only wonder what kind of things Neji had put in there that was for her eyes only.

Something suddenly occurred to Lee. "Hey Hinata-Chan, I used to train against Neji-San all the time. I'm sure we could spar sometime if you need practice". He gave her a good guy pose right over Naruto. In truth he not only thought of the help it could give Hinata but also his own desire to fight a Hyuuga again.

"Thank you Lee-San" She had jumped back when Lee had stuck his thumb out at her. When she realized what it was she quickly fell back into a comfortable pace.

Lee's response was to let out a hearty laugh.

"So when _are_ you going to train us Ero-Sennin?" Naruto had a feeling he might have to beat the willingness out of their sensei if there was ever going to be any training done around here.

The frog hermit figured he had to throw them something or he figured he would have a mutiny on his hands. "Fine fine, I'll think of something I can begin training you in for tomorrow". Jiraiya had a feeling much of this mission would be spent finding a way to get back at Tsunade. "Just leave me alone till than".

"RIGHT!" Lee declared loudly.

"Alright than, now we're talking!" Naruto had achieved his small victory.

* * *

Later that night Naruto, Hinata, and Lee sat around a serviceable fire while their sensei slept some yards away. Where each of the three Gennins had erected a small personal tent their sensei had decided to just stick with sleeping in his clothes. The rest of the day had been spent talking about past missions they had done. When the sun had started to set and the sky colored as if it was on fire Jiraiya told them to start looking for a place to set up camp. Once they had gotten a couple dozen miles from Konoha the amount of trees finally petered out to the point where it really couldn't be called a forest anymore. They had set up their 'camp' near a gigantic olive tree before the sun had finally set behind the horizon. Their was enough dirt mixed among the grass that they had been able to fashion a makeshift fire pit. Now they sat around the low fire quietly discussing the next day.

"I have to wonder if Jiraiya-Sensei has even thought of our teaching schedule for tomorrow". Lee eyed the direction of the sleeping man as he spoke.

"Ha, I don't have to wonder about that. He's probably thinking about anything but that". He knew that the old man didn't always think about perverted things, but the man could be very irresponsible sometimes and that just irritated him.

Hinata had started to catch on herself to the reality of Jiraiya. "He is our sensei so he'll have to think of something right?" She didn't really think that she'd like to see Naruto-Kun and Jiraiya-Sensei continue to argue about every little thing much longer.

For some unfathomable reason Naruto didn't feel like arguing the point against Hinata. He decided to bring up another point instead. "If all else fails we could always try and teach ourselves right?" At the moment it seemed like the best contingency plan to him. "I mean you have that scroll Hinata and Lee has his, uh, training. I'm sure if I keep trying I could come up with something really cool as well". His hands punctuated his words with controlled gestures.

"The real problem is we'll be in Sunagakure soon. We've only recently become their allies so we might find some resistance while we're there" Lee said clinically.

Hinata had thought of the same thing earlier. "If we're not careful we could end up on the wrong side of some sand-nin. The sand-nin from the Chuunin exam were scary enough". She shuddered involuntarily at the memory of what she witnessed during that time.

Naruto took notice of the shudder and he reached over to pat her shoulder. "Don't worry about it Hinata, Gaara and them are on our side now right? I'm sure most of the other sand guys see us the same way". He based this observation on absolutely nothing of course.

"We'll have to tread lightly for a little while at the very least. We should test the water until we know how the general populous feel". Lee held up a solitary finger for emphasis.

"We were sent on this mission because the Hokage-Sama must believe that we won't be alienated there. She also said Shizune-San is there if we needed any help". Hinata recounted the brief conversation she had with Tsunade before their arrival at the older woman's office the other day.

"Hey your right, Obaa-Chan wouldn't send us somewhere we'll be unwelcome". That made more sense than just saying Gaara and his siblings were representing their village in their willingness to give aid. "I'm sure everything will be all right" In this at least he was confident he was right.

Lee suddenly pushed himself into a standing position. He tried to stifle a silent yawn, but failed. "I think I'll turn in for the night. If we really are going to receive our first training tomorrow I want to be extra prepared". He started moving off in the direction their sensei was roughly in. "Goodnight" he called back as he disappeared from the fire's illuminating perimeter.

Both Hinata and Naruto responded in kind as the lost sight of him. They were alone now, the only thing keeping them company was the occasional pop from the fire, or the occasional noise from some creature of the night.

Hinata shifted uneasily. She had been comfortable enough with Lee there to distract her from her idol, but that distraction was now gone. She still didn't have the confidence to talk to Naruto directly so she decided she might as well go to sleep herself and spare herself an embarrassing situation.

She stood up and was about to bid Naruto goodnight herself when suddenly he cleared his throat. She involuntarily turned to meet the sound, but there was only a sheepish grin on his face to greet her. "Hey, Hinata, do you think we could talk a little bit longer, just the two of us".

How could she refuse him? "S-sure Naruto-Kun uh, what did you want to talk about?" She couldn't help but notice how nervous she had become. She quietly retook her place by the fire sitting ever so close to the boisterous boy.

"Oh nothing really, I just wasn't ready to sleep yet" He gave her what she had to assume was a look of apology.

She had to resist the urge to hang her head. _Naruto-Kun…_ She had almost believed he had wanted specifically to talk to her.

He noticed that she seemed a little put off by that. "Oh sorry, I guess what I meant to say was I'm not really sure what to talk about. I figured if you weren't tired we could talk about something".

Her spirits lifted once again. She shifted uncomfortably as she tried to think of a good topic. "Umm…" She suddenly had a flash of brilliance, she could ask Naruto-Kun how he felt to be on a cell with her. "What do you think about being put on this new cell Naruto-Kun?"

Naruto was relieved he didn't have to think about something to talk about. "I dunno, it's a little odd because it was supposed to be just me and Jiraiya-San. I was supposed to be training so I could bring Sasuke back for good this time, but I guess it's cool having some friends along as well". He thought about his new situation for a second. "Now that I think about it I guess I'm pretty fortunate because I don't think I would have been able to take a Chuunin exam by myself" He chuckled at this revelation.

"Neji-Nee-San and Kiba-Kun told me about your mission after they were released from the hospital. I'm really sorry that you couldn't save Sasuke-San Naruto-Kun. I didn't know him very well, but I wish there was something I could have done to help. I know he must have been a really close friend to you".

Naruto suddenly looked closely at Hinata, he hadn't been expect such a sudden outpour of compassion. "Thank you Hinata that means a lot". He wasn't as uncomfortable as he'd thought he'd be discussing his failure with Hinata.

Hinata was an expert on depression and she could see that this is where their conversation was headed. She gave him her best attempt at a reassuring smile "It's good that you get to take the Chuunin exam now though. I can't imagine what it would be like to leave all your friends behind for a couple years and than come back only to find everyone else had made Chuunin before you".

"Yeah you're right. It's not like I think having you and Lee along is going to interfere with my training, but no matter what I have to get stronger. I promised Sakura-Chan that we'd definitely bring Sasuke back this time". Passion suddenly entered his voice as he thought about how much this mission meant to him.

Hinata had almost forgotten about Sakura, the object of Naruto-Kun's constant affections, and also the forehead girl Ino had referenced. When she thought of that pink-haired girl she suddenly felt a pang of something she'd never felt before. She eventually realized that there was only one thing it could be, jealousy. Was she jealous that Sakura-San got all the attention from Naruto-Kun? Up to this point in her life she was content with just admiring Naruto-Kun and desiring to be like him. Now that she had every chance to spend a lot of time with him on this mission could the situation between them change to something more?

While Hinata tried to deal with her confusing thoughts Naruto just kept on going. "Ero-Sennin said we have three years before Orochimaru can possess Sasuke so I _have_ to train harder than I ever have before". The same passion as earlier crept back into his voice.

Hinata pieced together some bits of information she had heard over the past months. "Orochimaru is the man who killed the Sandaime Hokage right? That means he's also the man that tried to ally the Suna against us".

Naruto nodded at her conclusion. "Orochimaru was once a teammate of Ero-Sennin. He gave up on that snake bastard a long time ago, but I _will_ not give up on Sasuke like he did!" Naruto didn't even bother to hide his utter contempt for the Otokage as he spoke.

Something bothered Hinata about this "Why would Orochimaru want Sasuke-San anyway?"

"Orochimaru wants Sasuke for his bloodline limit, than he's supposed to attack Konoha once he's accomplished that". What got him madder than anything else was the fact that Sasuke had gone to the snake Sanin willingly.

"Do you think that Tsunade-Sama set our deadline at three years because she wants us ready to fight the sound nin when they attack us?" It was hard for her to understand why anyone could hate their home village so much.

"I don't know, but I worry about all the other cells. Most of them have never fought sound nin before and they might try and kill off any cell that leaves the village regardless of who their sensei is". Naruto showed a rare moment of insight with this statement.

Hinata had already been worrying about the welfare of her friends. Now however, she had even more to worry about with this apparent threat of the sound. "I can only hope everyone will be okay with all that's going on".

Naruto suddenly lifted his gaze from the fire "Hey Hinata, there's no way that any of our friends would let themselves loose to any stupid sound-nin right?" In true Naruto style he did his best to uplift the mood.

Hinata gave a small chuckle as she felt the pressure from their earlier conversation melt away. "You're right of course Naruto-Kun" she felt herself relaxing a bit now.

A silence began to stretch between them. It seems like neither one of them knew exactly how to keep the conversation going.

Naruto had been busy trying to stoke the fire with what was available when suddenly dawned on him. "Hey Hinata I never thought that I'd be able to talk to you this easily. You used to always look away when I noticed you, and you were always hiding behind walls and such. I always thought that you pretty weird because you were always hiding. Considering how you always acted I never thought you could be this easygoing, you haven't even stuttered once". Naruto once again looked back at Hinata, this time with a stupid grin.

What he said hit home like a bolt of lightning. He was right, now that she thought about it. She had just started talking with Naruto and without realizing it she had carried on a conversation more easily with him than she had with anyone else before. Now that it was pointed out she couldn't help but become more conscience of it.

"Y-you're right Naruto-Kun. I didn't even think about it". She was trying hard to recapture the mood that let her be so easy going before, but found herself failing. "I don't have any confidence when I'm talking to people and I uh…" She was finding it to be very awkward, talking about her introversion.

Naruto noticed he hit on a sore subject and quickly tried to make amends. "Ah, sorry Hinata I didn't mean to pry. You can just forget I said anything". He waved his arms in front of him as if trying to erase his prior question.

"It's just that… I'm not ready to talk about that right now" She ran a hand through her black hair trying to get rid of the tension she was feeling.

"It's okay you know Hinata. I may have thought you were really weird at first, but now that I've talked with you a bit I can see that you're actually kinda nice. If you have something you want to talk about than I'm all ears". Neji had told him that asking about the Hyuuga might get her to converse, but he had started talking with her without even realizing how easy it could be.

"Thank you Naruto-Kun". The boy that was sitting naught but a few feet away from her would probably be the hardest one to talk to about the subject of her shyness. He was always so confident in everything he did and she felt that she was lacking, considering that she said she was going to change herself for the better. To tell him that she gained strength from his confidence, and just the act of talking to him was like a rush would be too embarrassing to reveal.

Naruto stood up and stretched his arms out wide. "It's getting late. If we stay up too long we'll be useless if we want to do some training tomorrow on top of all that walking right? Talking with you was really fun yet I don't want to overdue it".

Hinata stayed where she was sitting as Naruto began walking in the direction Lee had gone in earlier. At first she was just going to let him go with a "goodnight", but she thought there was something more important she could say. "Naruto-Kun, when the time comes I want bring Sasuke-San back with you, to Konoha and to all of his friends".

A strange look passed over Naruto's face for a brief moment. "That means a lot Hinata, thank you". Without even thinking about it his expression turned into one of a beaming smile.

That smile he gave her was perhaps the warmest, and friendliest ones she had ever seen before. "Th-Thank you Naruto-Kun" She was glad that her face was already flushed from the proximity of the fire, or she could have died from embarrassment if he had seen her intense blush. In the confusion of his simple statement she had almost forgot to wish him a good night "sleep well Naruto-Kun".

In response he gave a small wave "you too Hinata". This time he managed to leave the fire site without any more interruptions. A yawn escaped his lips as he made his way along the night cloaked ground.

Once Naruto had made it to the tent he shared with Lee and the noises associated with such activity died down Hinata began to put out the fire. She quickly threw some dirt onto the already dying fire than waited to see if all the embers had been put out. Once she was satisfied the deed was done she proceeded to her own tent.

After awhile the three cell 15 members had fallen asleep. The only one left still awake was a sneaky old man right in their midst. He'd listened to their entire conversation and he was running through it again in his mind. In truth he'd had plenty of time to devise a feasible training regime for them by now. After listening to their 'mutinous objections to his competency' he joked with himself that he might just forget the whole thing. The thing that had most caught his interest was the conversation Hinata and Naruto had between themselves. Naruto apparently still had the death wish of a plan to save his friend. He had a feeling he'd had to watch that for any 'interesting' developments between the boy and girl though. He found himself snickering wickedly even now as he attempted to fall asleep.

* * *

Cell 15 was well on it's way by the time the sun had traversed a good portion of the morning sky. As the three Gennins and one Sanin trudged down the road the sound of countless singing birds kept them company. The area of fire country they were in now couldn't really be called a forest anymore, yet there were still a significant amount of trees doting the landscape.

Lee, being the first one to have actually fallen asleep was also the first one to wake up. Before even the rambunctious Naruto had woken up he had prepared breakfast. Whatever the stamina meal he had made was wasn't sitting well with Naruto and Hinata's stomachs. On the other hand Jiraiya and Lee looked just peachy after eating those 'omelets'.

"Oi, how many more days was it 'till we reach Aki…whatever it's called?" Naruto asked this as he attempted to look at the map currently in Hinata's hands.

The girl in question had pulled out a map of fire country out awhile back and had been studying it. "Judging by where we are I'd say we could reach Akirahara by nightfall at this pace".

"See, just like I told you" Jiraiya piqued up from up ahead.

Naruto's face scrunched up in annoyance "Yeah, yeah".

Hinata suddenly brought the map closer to her face. "This map says there's a small village about thirty minutes away from here". She placed a finger in front of a small dot on the map so everyone could see what she indicated.

Jiraiya leaned in to see exactly which village she was talking about. When he realized which village it was he got an idea. These brats wanted training, and this village would give him the perfect thing to train them.

Hinata continued to show Naruto different areas on the map when Lee lost interest and turned to their sensei. Since last night the two had unconsciously connected in a way that neither one of them realized yet.

"Jiraiya-Sensei what sort of training were you going to be giving us today?" Lee had brought up the subject before even Naruto could. This surprised Jiraiya as much as anything else could.

"Well I think that I'll stop in at this village coming up for some supplies for your exercises I have planned. There's some things there I could use for some good lessons".

At this Naruto broke his concentration on the map and jumped in, leaving Hinata holding the map. "So you _are_ finally going to start teaching us stuff huh?" Naruto grinned widely at the thought of finally getting the training he had been promised months ago.

Hinata quickly folded up her map and placed it back in her bag. She was a little miffed that Naruto so quickly moved on from what she had been talking about, but she had to admit that this grabbed her curiosity too. "What things are you going to pick up Jiraiya-San?" she asked innocently.

He grinned and wagged a finger at her "you'll just have to wait and see now won't you".

Lee pumped his fists into the air. "I can't wait to finally begin our training!" He looked like a child in a candy store. If there was anyone who liked to training more than Naruto it might just be Lee.

Jiraiya just simply patted the boy on the shoulder. "You won't have to wait much longer. We're coming up on the village right now". He pointed to an out of the way dirt road leading away from the main road they were on. "I'm pretty well known in this particular village so I'm going to duck in there right quick and pick up some things and I'll be back in about a hour".

The three stopped short of the fork in the road and waited for the older man to start on his way. He looked them over with a critical eye. "You guys can wait right here for me, and I'll be right back".

"Hey why can't we come Ero-Sennin? Are you going to be doing some of your 'research'?" Naruto looked at their sensei with a condescending glare.

The accused man let out a shout of protest. "Aaaah, don't always expect the worse of me you brat! I said what I'm going to do and I'm going to do it, but it's not exactly kid safe if you know what I mean". The blush on his face was indicative enough of his truthfulness on the matter.

Naruto put his hands behind his head, shooting the embarrassed man a sidelong glance. "Right, everywhere you go you always have the best intentions. I believe that."

Hinata only had a small thing to add to that "research?" She didn't like the way Naruto-Kun was implying the word.

"Are you going to write a book Jiraiya-Sensei?" Lee hadn't picked up on the context of the conversation yet.

Naruto giggled conspiratorially in response to the question. "I guess since we're being forced to wait here I can tell you all about Ero-Sennin's style of 'research'".

Jiraiya saw that he had gotten himself into a situation. He couldn't very well take these kids to this particular village, but he didn't want Naruto telling incriminating stories about him. He resolved to just pay back Naruto in kind later. "Whatever you want, I'll be back soon". He turned around and quickly made his way down the dirt path in a huff.

This left cell 15 on the main road with only the various trees and buzzing insects for company. Naruto and Lee watched the older man go as Hinata started walking towards the closest tree. After a few moments the two boys turned and went to join her. All they could do now was wait for Jiraiya to come back.

* * *

On a grassy hill only slightly over a hundred yards away three figures waited watching the exchange. The only one out of the three that was actually standing had a very passive expression on her face.

"This is it, we begin now" she intoned monotonously.

One of the kneeling figures stood up to join his companion. "Oh I can't wait sis', if this is going to be fun as master said it will be than I might just be able to get into this".The last member of the group stood up. "Shut up ya' crazy sicko. You can just keep any of you're weird experimentin' to ya'self this time".

"Stop your needless chatter". The first speaker raised a hand slowly and than snapped her fingers "now".

With this the three people on the hill performed the seals for the Shunshin Jutsu at rapid speeds. In a flash they were gone, teleporting straight to their intended prey.

* * *

**A/N: I'm not all that happy with this chapter but theres going to be a chapter or two of fight scenes now so we can all benefit. I have a bad habit of capitalization on some stuff like technique names but oh well. Who thinks that Needles by System of a Down would be a perfect Sasuke/Orochimaru character song?**

**Once again I'm gonna plug my homepage. Hyuugamaki at livejournal, or just go to my profile and click on my homepage thingy. I'd love to get questions and comments there. Feels more like a community thing or something.**


	4. 04 Curse of Battle

**I don't own Naruto**

**Sorry for the 9200+ words, it seems I write long fight scenes.**

Only a few minutes ago Jiraiya had left cell 15 on the side of the road while he visited an out of the way village for some training supplies. Hinata had propped herself against the nearest tree while Naruto and Lee remained standing nearby. For now they were just taking in the pre-noon atmosphere not even bothering to strike up a conversation yet.

The three of them were pretty content with just enjoying the silence for now. This oblivious air held them completely unawares when very suddenly they found themselves to be no longer alone. Without any warning three unannounced people appeared between the three Gennins.

Completely on reflex Naruto and Lee jumped away and immediately set themselves to battle ready stances not even comprehending what had happened yet. When the emergence of the three hostile looking ninja finally registered their thoughts simultaneously went to Hinata. Thankfully she had also immediately scattered from close proximity to the strangers. She kicked off from the ground and jumped back as far as she could in that single leap.

Hinata, Lee, and Naruto each stood facing one of the three intruders. The six of them stood there, no one apparently wanting to make the first move.

Naruto stood facing a rather cocky looking girl. Her suntanned face had a simple smile plastered on it like that of a kid in a candy store. Her dark red hair was done up in a simple braid that reached to her waist, and her clear emerald eyes reflected the same easygoing attitude her lips did. She had quite an odd outfit. She wore a matching pair of black skintight shorts and sleeveless midriff top over her feminine figure. Over her top she wore a padded purple vest embroidered in a pattern of circles done in silver. Wrapped around her waist was a darker purple long skirt with wide slits up the sides. Up high on her right thigh was tied her silver clothed sound forehead protector. The front of her skirt had and odd take on the hidden sound's symbol also done in silver taking up most of the material. Her forearms were encased in simple black bracers which extended to cover the backs of her hands complete with finger loops. The final piece of her outfit was matching in a pair of black shin guards that attached seamlessly to her black sandals. What caught his attention more than anything else was some kind of odd weapon roughly in the shape of an oval that hung low on her back held in place by a leather harness of some kind. She stood with her legs slightly spread out and one arm resting over her weapon as if she would use it at the slightest provocation.

Hinata stood squared off against a very deranged looking boy. The only real indication of his disposition was his smile since his wild brown hair completely hid his eyes. It wasn't just the homicidal, full-toothed grin that made him seem this way she realized, it was something about the aura he exuded itself that had her uneasy. He wore a baggy gray hoody with a sound forehead protector wrapped around his waist like a belt. She had a hard time telling what kind of pants he was wearing beyond the black color. His pants were covered in all different kinds of pouches and bags of every shape and size she had ever seen them come in. The last thing she could note about him that instead of wearing the standard ninja sandals he sported a pair brown combat boots. This boy stood in a similar fashion as his first companion, but he kept his hands in the pocket of his hoody.

The last member of the invading group stood facing Lee calmly. This girl had a completely different air about her than the other two. She was the only one to actually wear her forehead protector on her forehead. Her blond hair came down in short bangs on either side of the protector and long down the back only going as far as her shoulders. Her plain hazel eyes shown with no discernible emotion and her mouth gave nothing away. She was completely unlike the others in their open display of emotion. She had a swath of bandages wrapped over the slight swell of her chest, and over that was a simple green cotton shrug decorated her shoulders. Her arms and stomach were defined by well-toned muscles that spoke of an active and rigorous physical lifestyle. Her hands were covered by green fingerless gloves that had metal plates that segmented and extend to the first joints of her fingers in a shape of metal knuckles. Not in keeping with the rest of her outfit, loose red hakama pants covered her legs and even concealed whatever it was she wore on her feet. She stood straight and tall in contrast to her two companions.

For awhile these six ninjas continued their standoff. It was as if the gods of everything cliché were taking special interest into this situation. A strong gust of wind complete with leaves blew around everyone only punctuating the tenseness of the moment. This seemed like it could go on for quite awhile until eventually the one facing Lee spoke up.

"We have been sent here by the honored Orochimaru-Sama to kill you three. Let's get to better know your killers. My name is Urashihara. This idiot over here is Kaeri and this other idiot is Katsu". She indicated first the other girl and than the crazy looking boy.

Both of the speaker's allies spoke up with fake indignation at being called such names.

"Don't make me hurt ya" the one called Kaeri spoke up.

"You wouldn't be talking so big if I had been made the captain of this mission you understand" the one called Katsu chimed in.

The corner of Urashihara's mouth piqued in what one would call a smile unless you saw that no emotion crept into her eyes. "That's how it is".

"Oh crap" was the only thing Naruto could think to say. Hinata and Lee simply stood their ground looking for any threatening moves that could be made against them-In unison the three sound-nin closed the gap between them and the leaf-nin they were matched against. Before either of the cell 15 ninja could react their right hands were seized and pressed into an unfamiliar hand seal by their opponent's right hand. The six ninja instantly disappeared from the roadside upon the completion of the advanced Shunshin Jutsu.

* * *

Naruto and Kaeri re-appeared in a wide clearing that looked like it wasn't anywhere near where they had been before, surrounded by honeylocust trees . Before Naruto could even get his bearings Kaeri struck out with her free left hand at the confused boy's chest. This staggered Naruto off guard and sent him flying back. He landed as gracefully as possible, immediately drawing a kunai and holding it out in front of him. The sound-nin took this chance to grab the weapon she had strapped behind her back and pulled it out with a quick and practiced pull.

The second the weapon left the harness the smug ninja gave a hard flick of her wrist. The weapon in her hand suddenly transformed with that simple flick. It took Naruto a second to realize what it must be because it didn't look anything like a traditional boomerang. The first thing that caught his eye was the size, in this extended length it was almost as long as the girl was tall. The second thing he noticed was it was much more angular than curved like he was used to seeing boomerangs. Both ends of the boomerang had circular holes cut into the inside lined with leather grips. The entire edge of the switchblade boomerang was lined with a sharp edge that gleamed with a dangerous light in the morning sun. He could see that the mechanism that joined the two wings was pretty complicated if it could snap the weapon into a seamless whole from two side-by-side halves.

The girl grinned wickedly as she took pleasure in Naruto's astonishment at her weapon. "How do ya like ma baby, Nidhogg cutie? I think you an' him are gonna make fast friends right?"

_Cutie? _Naruto quickly weighed his options. He had no idea where this crazy chick had teleported them too and she didn't exactly look like she wanted to be friends, and he seriously doubted any amount of kunai would slow down that huge boomerang. His options looked pretty bleak at the moment.

* * *

Hinata had been pressed into a similar situation. She had fared slightly better against her 'captor' than Naruto had at least. The second she re-appeared in a loose grove of apple trees her free hand instinctively whipped up and delivered 'five' across Katsu's face. The recipient of her desperate attack reeled before angrily shoving her away. Hinata skidded across a small patch of dirt before regaining her balance by digging her heels in to the firmament.

Katsu was left rubbing his face while shooting her a death glare from behind his concealing head of hair. "You bitch, if you want to die that badly than maybe I won't take my time killing you like was the plan". With this declaration he reached into two pouches on his pants and pulled out a handful of shurikens and smoke bombs.

She was completely unprepared for this, but Hinata steeled herself for combat regardless. She placed both her left hand and foot forward, and tucked her right hand and foot closer to her body. Finally Hinata turned both her palms forward, completing the basic Hyuuga Jyuuken stance. She was in a situation she had never been in before, just her and her opponent. She felt fear start to rise from deep within her, but stubbornly opposed it by thinking of what Naruto would say to her in this situation that would boost her spirits. As a final act to dispel her fears she breathed deeply and tried to let out all her negative emotions in one breath. This was one time where she couldn't afford to doubt herself or her abilities. She set herself to win, to defeat this opponent and finally prove to herself that she was worthy of Naruto's praise.

* * *

Lee, having trained his body far harder than his two companions, instinctively struck out before he and his enemy had even fully re-appeared. His body had finally healed back to its fullest extent after months of training it and feeding it nasty medicines. It was like the incident with Gaara's Sabaku Kyu had never happened. This was readily evident in how fast his fist clenched and launched at Urashihara's midsection. The amount of speed and muscle power he put into this punch simply wasn't available to him a few months ago during that failed mission.

Considering this he was very surprised when he felt his fist connect not with his opponents chest, but with her other hand. The girl had caught his fist that could shatter bones with a simple outstretched palm, something he had never thought possible. What was even odder was that he didn't feel any impact at all.

With a patient calm her hand slowly encircled his fist and she began to squeeze. Lee now found himself with both of his hands preoccupied with those of the cool tempered girl. He tried to press his considerable strength against hers but found no matter how much he tried, her relaxed posture did not yield.

As Lee began to wonder if he could even call this altercation a stalemate Urashihara suddenly loosened her grip. A blue flash of chakra pulsed from her hands and suddenly Lee found himself sailing very quickly away from her. It felt like he had wrapped his hands around a bolt of lightning. Before he crashed into any trees with his path through the air he put enacted a series of flips that helped slow him down. Even though he had just been put through a tremendous shock he recovered his wits well enough. He landed ready with his hand stretched towards his assaulter and his legs spread wide.

The girl stood her ground and did not move an inch. Lee took this opportunity to examine his options. There was an enemy before him with unknown strength, and he had no idea where his companions were.

"Do not think of leaving. You will die here. That is all you have to worry about". The oddly clad girl still did not move, but Lee had a feeling from their quick exchange that she could probably match speed with him. He had a very bad feeling about this girl.

* * *

Neither Naruto nor Kaeri made a move against the other for many moments. Naruto felt like his arms would cramp if held any tighter of a grip on his kunai. Kaeri on the other hand didn't seem to be bothered by the weight of her Nidhogg.

She demonstrated this ease by suddenly hefting her weapon up and set it to spinning, her hand gliding along the grip as it spun in its orbit. The orange-clad boy knew what must be coming so he wasted no time in throwing his kunai at her. All he could hope for was just a small distraction at this point from that puny weapon. The second the kunai had left his hand he put his fingers in the cross hand seal in preparation for his specialty, Kage Bunshin.

To her credit Kaeri flicked her free hand out and caught the flying kunai with one finger. She grinned at this reckless attack on her. It seemed like she shared something in common with this cute boy. As she twirled the kunai on her finger her arm pulled back, the boomerang still spinning. "LET'S GO!" She yelled as she pulled her arm forward and let loose the ridiculously large weapon.

At that same moment Naruto countered with his own "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!". The area surrounding him exploded in a gaggle of man-sized puffs of smoke as he summoned over two dozen physical replicas of himself.

Before Nidhogg had traveled very far from her grip she slung the kunai that had been spinning in her hand straight at the spot where the original Naruto was standing.

Naruto managed to sidestep the kunai, but the clone behind him was hit dead center sending up a poof of smoke as it disappeared. Nidhogg followed only a split second behind the kunai. He had no chance of dodging the spinning death in time. In the span of only a couple seconds the boomerang had traversed the gap between foes. Even as he did his best to position himself to dodge it he knew it was too late. Luckily for him though, through the intangible connection he shared with his clones the nearest one grabbed his leg and pulled him down. As Naruto was jerked onto his stomach he caught the demise of his clone on Nidhogg's blade out of the corner of his eye. It continued to whirl past and sliced through two more unsuspecting clones before it hit the tree line. The nearest Honeylocust tree was neatly sliced through at the base. The snapping sound of the blade tearing through the giant tree blasted the clearing like a mountain splitting in two.

Naruto scrambled back onto his feet in preparation for Kaeri's next attack. What he was expecting wasn't what he got. The girl just stood there with her hands on hips, and a smirk on her lips. As he puzzled why she was so calm it came to him, boomerangs always came back. Naruto barely managed to duck down before a second deafening crack signaled the return of Nidhogg through the still falling tree. When the sound of whirling death passed only inches above him he got the feeling he just underwent a unscheduled haircut.

Naruto looked up in time to see Kaeri reach out, and with some superhuman sense of timing, seized one of the grips of her weapon. The force of catching such a rapidly spinning weapon spun her around once before she brought the opposite edge into the ground, stopping her movement. The three hit the ground with an earth shaking 'whump'.

Naruto couldn't let her let that blade be loosed again. He crossed his fingers in front of him once again. "TAJU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" with this yell close to one hundred shadow clones burst forth all around the sound-nin.

"Oh my aren't ya a one trick pony?" her gaze never stopped wandering from clone to clone.

"Ah shut it!". Naruto now had confidence he could press an attack. No matter how any clones he had, he'd learned from many past battles that hanging back while letting his clones attack never seemed to work. In unison he and all his considerable amount of replications launched themselves at Kaeri.

Kaeri let out a barking laugh. It seems she indeed had found someone even more impulsive than herself. She let the leaping multitudes of Naruto sail a little bit closer to her before acting. She left her weapon stuck in the ground as she ran through a rapid series of hand seals. Bird, Boar, Rabbit, Ram, Boar, and finally Dragon. Not letting her built up chakra to dissipate she quickly took up Nidhogg again and wasted no time sending it into a blinding spin above her head. "Futon!" she let the blade spin just a little bit faster before continuing "Great Howling Cyclone!".

The wind Jutsu kicked up a raging whirlwind around Kaeri, aided by the spinning of her boomerang. The Jutsu spiraled upward ripping up the ground around her at the distance of three yards. A wall of attacking clone met the wall of spinning wind with disastrous results. The clones that had been closest to her were destroyed first, and than the ones farther away began to be destroyed.

Kaeri decided that it was a good time to stop. "Release!" she cried out. The cyclone spinning around her expanded ten times over in an instant, destroying all the remaining clones and sending the real Naruto flying headlong away from her. She stopped the spinning of Nidhogg by simply letting it run its self into the ground at an angle, the cyclone disappearing at the same time.

The impact against the cyclone Jutsu ripped the front of Naruto's jacket to shreds and sent him flying away faster than he would have thought possible. Almost on instinct his hands once again formed the seal for the Kage Bunshin. He barely managed to choke out the name of the Jutsu, and only six clones appeared this time. They appeared in a line behind him, each one trying to slow his flight as much as possible. He slammed through each one violently before finally the last one caught him, slamming against a tree.

Kaeri pressed her advantage gladly. She ripped Nidhogg from the ground and charged recklessly at her adversary. Halfway to the still dazed Naruto she whipped out her weapon out to her side, this motion caused the giant boomerang's mechanisms to click and ratchet. The quick motion brought the device loose and quickly snapped it back into a six-foot long straight edged blade.

Naruto shook his head violently in an attempt to gain his faculties back. Even with all those clones slowing him down that blow against the tree still hurt. His hand gravitated to his chest where the tatters of his favorite jacket now decorated. He suddenly remembered that his enemy was still here and unharmed.

The extended Nidhogg chopped deep into the bark of the tree where his head had been a split second before. He had seen his incoming doom just quickly enough to dodge underneath. When Kaeri braced her feet apart to add stability to her sweeping move she had given Naruto just enough room to roll through. He kicked off the second he completed his roll creating a distance between them. He twisted midair with a fresh batch of kunai in his hand, flinging them without waiting for a good view of her position.

She anticipated the attack and pushed away from her weapon. She made the mistake of trying to wrench free her weapon regardless. This hesitation cost her dearly. The first two kunai flew wide on either side of her, but the third pierced her hesitating hand clean through.

She hopped away from her weapon, turning away from Naruto as she grasped the damaged hand close to her. This gave Naruto sole use of the advantage, which he now would gladly press.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" one more time the area around Naruto and Kaeri was filled with his clones. This time he had a plan. A plan like this always came easily to the mind of a trickster.

Kaeri heard the name of that infernal Jutsu called again and this just further enraged her. With blood spewing from the vicious wound in her hand she turned back around, letting out a furious yell. "Damn you, you stupid brat… fort the love of.." she trailed off, blinded by her own pain. She saw how many clones she was facing and would have laughed if her hand wasn't sending waves of pain to her brain. There were only seven Narutos arrayed around her. She prioritized the need to get back to Nidhogg first. As her luck would have it only two clones stood between her and her weapon.

She exploded into motion, first kicking and than punching with her free hand the two clones that stood in her way. Before any of the remaining Naruto's could react she had reached her weapon. No matter how cute he was his death was assured now. With her healthy hand she gave a muscle straining wrench on Nidhogg. She flicked her wrist and the mechanism ratcheted it back into its boomerang shape. "That was it fa' ya you bastard!" as she cocked back the giant boomerang she finally felt that something was wrong. The balance of the blade was off somehow. It felt like-

"I've got you know!" all of a sudden her Nidhogg burst in a puff of smoke, revealing that she was actually holding Naruto by the wrist.

"Oh shi-" was all she managed to get out before Naruto's free hand came crashing into the side of her face. "U-" Naruto yelled. The punch sent her reeling into the next clone, which prompt ducked low and delivered a kick that sent her sailing up into the air "-ZU-". Another clone leapt up on the shoulders of the last one and rocketed after Kaeri, delivering a kick to her side which sent her spinning "-MA-". Kaeri's body was next rocked by a clone that had positioned itself already in the air, it spun and brought a foot down on her midsection "-KI" her body rocketed back to the ground. The final Naruto, the real one, was waiting below. He brought his arm up to meat Kaeri's body and caught her square in the back. the noise of her bones creaking against the strain was incredibly audible "ADVANCED". His muscles strained not to let her body continue into the ground. For the final attack he hopped off the ground and spun, bringing his heel to bear once again onto her midsection "COMBO!" he yelled out with triumph. His heel slammed her into the ground and pinned her there.

Naruto breathed raggedly, the strain of this combat starting to take it's toll. The remaining clones disappeared in their poofs of smoke. The only clone that hadn't attacked disappeared, leaving the real Nidhogg to fall onto a patch of dirt. The battle weary boy slowly started to step back, confident it was now over.

Kaeri tried desperately to suck in some air as it felt like her lungs had been crushed by his dizzying attack. When she thought that finally her lungs would fail her they began to slowly suck in air again. After many moments of trying to regain regularity in her breathing she finally mustered the energy to speak. "Kage Bunshin… Henge… and… Kawarimi… dammit… you…" each word caused her great deals of pain.

"That's what… you get for messing… with me" Naruto was starting to feel the fatigue more and more as the adrenaline flooded from his system. He squinted against the blinding sun to look coldly at his fallen opponent

"you're dead… fa sure now" she could feel the chakra flowing through her. She no longer had a choice _but_ to use _that_ Jutsu. This is what it meant to be a ninja under Orochimaru. She slowly started to right herself into a standing position as the chakra gave her back her bodily functions in full.

Naruto had felt this chakra before. As he felt it growing he tried hard to think of where he had felt it before. It continued to grow, coming from the fallen girl and it eventually came to him. He _knew_ now where he had felt this chakra before. _Crap.

* * *

_

Hinata eyed the weapons Katsu kept in between his fingers. There was no doubt that he was a long range specialist. She would have to think of a way to keep herself within close range of him if there was to be any chance of success for her.

"You are Hyuuga Hinata, fallen heir to your house. Unable to manage your bloodline, you can barely perform Jyuuken right? Close quarters combat is all you have, and that would definitely not be called a specialty for you right?". He never lost that condensing smirk through his whole speech.

Hinata heard these words, but for the first time in her life choose to ignore such things. "You want to kill me so come and do it" she had to do everything she could to goad him into coming at her in close combat.

"Nice try, but no matter how weak you are it would only take one good strike from your hand to kill me". Katsu palmed the shurikens in his right hand to wag a finger at her, than replaced the shurikens back in their positions amongst his fingers.

Hinata had to muster all her resolve so she wouldn't give anything away to the crazy boy. _This is a test, I will prove that I _can_ be a good ninja or die trying_. "I'm ready" she was, if she failed here it would be all over for her regardless if someone came to save her or not.

"Than it's time for you to die". His left hand came up first, slinging the smoke bombs towards her. She didn't know what techniques to expect from him, but bad aim had not been one of them. The smoke bombs detonated at various spots around her in the grove. She instantly steeled her stance, ready for anything else.

He made no other move after this. He simply crouched lower to the ground and waited for the effects of his special smoke bombs to take their effect. He had an entire arsenal of every imaginable ninja tool from which to draw from back in Otogakure, but he only had so many pockets. He didn't believe in compartment scrolls either. He brought only what he thought would be able to defeat a Hyuuga. "I know you're just going to love my special smoke bombs" that grin once again splitting his face.

The resolved girl kept her stance regardless of her opponents inability to make a move, ready for anything. The smoke bombs he had thrown minutes earlier still had large orbs of coiling black smoke exuding from their positions. She had a growing feeling of dread about those things.

Katsu looked the girl over carefully. Kabuto-San had informed him this girl was weak, easy pickings. What he saw before him was a steely eyed girl who showed no signs of any weakness. Maybe this was a different person? It didn't matter, she was going to die the same. It was time to blind the Hyuuga.

Hinata began concentrating chakra on her eyes. _In the past I was so weak I couldn't even use my Byakugan without the use of hand seals_. She could feel the physical strain on the area around her eyes grow. _Neji-Nee-San used to be a shadow looming over any small achievement I ever made_. Her vision started to clear, it began to change in perception. _I always believed that the clans blessings were beyond me._ The veins around her eyes began to bulge out. _Things are different now, I found someone that believes I can do things when even I can't._ A second iris began forming within her milky-white orbs. _Because someone believed in me I have found that I can be strong._ Her hands and legs straightened out, her body stretched to its full height. _If just for this day alone I can show strength then I'll show that strength, I'll prove I can pull my own weight._ "BYAKUGAN!" she nearly screamed out. She had finally activated her bloodline without the use of hand seals.

"Whatever" Katsu decided he had had enough of this upstart girl. He threw the shurikens he had been keeping in his right hand straight at her. As the shurikens came in on her left side she dodged easily to her right.

For a second he had let fear spark through his thoughts. If she had used one of those other Hyuuga skills he had heard of to deflect his projectiles he would have been in big trouble. His fear quickly abated when he saw her dodge into one of the smoke orbs. There was no reason to fear anymore. She had fallen right into his trap.

As much confidence as she generated in herself, as much as she had trained herself to just activate her Byakugan, there was no way she could use Kaiten. Her only option was to dodge, and it wasn't until her feet already landed back on the ground that she realized her mistake. When she had activated her Byakugan she lost true perception of the world like her normal eyesight afforded her and gained something far more in return. She hadn't thought a smoke cloud would have impeded her vision at all, for nothing could block the penetrating sight of her bloodline limit. She was wrong. She could feel the oily smoke on her skin, but that wasn't what first alerted her to her sudden change in climate. The second she had entered the smoke orb her newly obtained vision was instantly cut off. Panic entered into her sense of resolve, she could feel her eyes still active so she had to conclude that it was the smoke she was in that affected her so.

"It may be that while you're in that little fun house of yours I won't be able to see you, but I'm willing to guess that you can't see me either right?" He let a long cackle escape his lips at thought of his trap working so flawlessly.

All Hinata had to do was leave this orb of darkness and than she'd be able to strike her enemy down. She charged forward and prepared for her sight to return, and with it her advantage. The exact moment she regained her vision she saw her mistake. The sound-nin came at her slashing with a long-bladed kunai. Her left hand came up short in an instinctive block. Her hand slapped against his wrist and she immediately pushed as much chakra as possible into his arm. As her chakra did its damage he jerked his hand back, dragging his kunai across her shoulder. Their wounds cause both of them to jump back from each other.

Hinata retreated back into the orb of smoke immediately moving as quietly as she could to what she could only hope what was still the right most inside boundary of her 'prison'. The sound's of Katsu's curses let her know where he was in relation to her for the moment.

That damn girl had certainly ruined his perfect plan. Her timing in coming out of his smoke orb couldn't have been worse for him. She had certainly demonstrated how dangerous she could be. His wrist ached like it was in a viciously tight clamp, and this pain made him mutter curses, unwillingly giving away his own position. He quickly forced himself to forget his pain and regain his composure. This fight was very fast turning from a leisurely win to a major annoyance. He reached into his largest pouch and pulled out one of his more favorite devices, the bola. He felt along the line of cord until he found the midpoint, and raised his arm over ahead and began twirling the weighted. He needed to buy time for his other wrist to recover. "Don't get cocky just because of that now".

"You're being cocky enough for the both of us so don't worry". Hinata had never been one for comebacks, but this one had just come to her. She picked up on the sound of something being whirling through the air, and prepared herself for the worst, training her ears to listen for the slightest change. Despite her mind urging caution she readied herself to start moving as quickly as possible. This stalemate they were in prevented her from the full force of his long distance attacks, and he from her short distance attacks. He may liked to play it safe, but she resolved that she wouldn't be able to afford such leisure much longer. She leapt to the side, out of the smoke orb and made a dash straight at Katsu.

He had anticipated this and waited for her to make the first move. He flung the bola low, aiming for her legs. The spinning weapon missed entirely as she jumped over it. He had also counted on this. In the moments between when he sent the bola to spinning and when Hinata began her attack he had managed to get his injured hand to pull out a small handful of powder from a small compartment at his waist. He blew the sapphire colored dust within the pouch into Hinata's path.

She stopped her charge as her vision picked up the dust cloud wreathed in some weird chakra. Instantly deciding to ignore it, she went straight through that cloud no matter what threat it could pose. Katsu was too astounded at her abandon to throw up a decent defense in time. The Hyuuga threw out both her palms and caught him square in the chest. Any outside observer would have been able to see the wave of chakra that pulsed out of Katsu's back as Hinata's strike hit home. He staggered back instantly beginning to hack up blood. Hinata didn't press the attack and this gave the sound-nin time enough to weakly jump into one of the far smoke orbs.

Unsurprisingly she found that not only could she not see out of the orbs she couldn't see into the orbs either. This was quickly becoming a very troublesome battle. She now had time to wonder if running through that chakra-charged dust cloud had been a good idea.

Katsu's mind was on a completely different path at this point. Rage consumed his mind, and a mist of battle fury was descending on his consciousness. _I want to see her dead at my feet. I want to rip her guts out. I'M GOING TO ANNIHILATE HER! _ Now was the perfect time to try out some new Jutsus. He set about concentrating all his chakra reserves at the nape of his neck. He was going to use the 'gift' Orochimaru had given him to destroy this increasingly dangerous girl. He felt it now. _Oh the power, oh the ecstasy._ At this point his mind began to cloud over as the forbidden Jutsu began achieving the desired results. The best part of this situation was that she had no idea what was going on within his smoke orb, allowing him all the time he need to complete the Jutsu.

* * *

Urashihara hadn't budged an inch from her original position in all the times Lee had charged in to attack. Every time he struck out with hand or foot she would block with just one of her hands using that weird chakra to nullify his attack. It seemed to him

like Taijutsu was not the most affective method against her.

"I am giving you five more minutes before I kill you" she intoned in that same monotonous voice.

_By the leaf, it seems I'm always matched against those with an ultimate defense. Gai-Sensei… will I ever be able to prove that I can win with Taijutsu alone?_ He gave up in attacking her in the fashion which had proven ineffective already, and decided he needed a plan. He knew that she was at least as fast as he himself was, and no matter how much force he put behind an attack she simply nullified it with that infernal chakra.

"How do you like my force cancel? I can stop anything with a kinetic force with ease. It is my bloodline limit. It does very well against Taijutsu users. You have three minutes". Urashihara's voice showed no sense of pride, just statements of fact.

Lee started at this revelation. _A bloodline… She's a genius than. _He had sworn that he could beat a genius with hard work, from his first days as a Gennin this had been a goal of his. He remembered all the times he had failed against geniuses, and all the training he put himself through because of it. _Neji… Gaara… Kimimaro… I've failed against them trying to prove my Nindo_. Today wouldn't be the day to loose yet again. "The fire of youth can make anything possible. I won't loose to you today, I will prove that I can win with Taijutsu alone!"

Lee came down on one knee immediately pulling down his orange socks. He than unclasped the training weights wrapped around his shins. These were different than the ones he had used during the Chuunin exam. The words 'youth' and 'passion' were emblazoned on alternating weight blocks instead of 'guts' as had been in the past. Lee slowly stood back up, bringing one weight in each hand up with him. In truth these things were much harder to lift than the previous weights, two times heavier to be exact. He held them stretched out at his sides waiting for his foes reaction.

The only reaction she gave was a raised eyebrow. She was more curious than awed by these weights.

He was a little annoyed she hadn't been impressed. "I'm beginning now!" Lee cried out. Instead of dropping them down like he had done in the past he pulled back both arms. Putting as much strength into it as he could possibly muster he brought his arms forward and flung them as hard as possible at the smug girl.

As expected she put forth both hands to intercept the weights. What he hadn't expected was that she dug in her heels and squared her shoulders when the weights hit her hands. The same blue flash exploded from her palms as before, but Lee noted that she was forced back just a little bit by the impact. He had no time to consider this marginal victory over her, he had to act quickly.

With those weights removed he could move over four times as fast as before. He demonstrated this by suddenly disappearing from in front of her. He could now move fast enough to look like he simply disappeared to the untrained eye.

She expected to be attacked from behind, and the second she recovered from the impact of Lee's weights she started to turn in that direction. The attack came from behind her as she turned. As fast as Lee had become her hand snaked in to block and nullify his attack.

Lee in turn disappeared again. Urashihara's training meant she could anticipate any kind of attack at any time. She crouched down low and avoided a neck-snapping kick by only a hairs breadth. She dodged or force canceled another succession of over a dozen lighting fast kicks and punches before seizing an opportunity. After three attacks were made Lee would be slow in starting another set of triple attacks. After the last set ended she set her hands to a rapid series of hand seals.

It was no longer time to stand idly by "Doton: Sin of Ruptured Earth!" She slammed her hands down on the ground just as Lee reappeared to deliver a kick to her head. Fortunately for her Lee had planted his other foot on the ground right next to her. Her Jutsu activated and the earth instantly began splitting and shaking violently. This centralized earthquake unbalanced Lee, but Urashihara didn't feel it's effects at all. Her feet also used chakra cancel to stop her body from being negatively effected by the destruction of the earth all around them.

It was time to use another aspect of her bloodline limit. She began absorbing the kinetic energy from the earthquake and funneled it to her hands. Lee was still busy being unbalanced by her Jutsu so she felt she had time to explain his plight.

"Not only can I cancel out kinetic energy but I can also absorb kinetic energy and use it as a weapon!" she yelled over the crashing earth. She cocked both arms back and than rocketed them forward into his chest. The exact instant before her hands came into contact with his chest she released all the kinetic chakra from her hands at once.

A huge explosion of chakra sent Rock Lee flying into the air. Urashihara wasted no time in pursuing him. She concentrated chakra and force from the now dissipating earthquake into her feet than launched herself into the sky . She misjudged her speed relative to his and almost over shot him, but she grabbed the front of his outfit at the last second and brought him up to her altitude.

Lee brought his head around just in time to see her fist smash into his face. Her fist skimmed off his face allowing her to bring her elbow to bear against his temple. The double blow to his head dazed Lee causing him respond even slower. She gave a few heavy slaps to the sides of his head before bringing both knees into his stomach one after the other.

He gritted his teeth against the pain and brought his arms up to shield his face. Any and every thought had already left his mind as instinct took over. This however, was not going to help him much. The girl continued unabated by smashing her knee into Lee's solar plexus. Oddly enough Lee, instead of doubling over in pain, jerked back violently forcing Urashihara to rip the hold she had on Lee's outfit. She didn't have time to react when he spun in the air bringing his leg down on her shoulder. There had been no time to use her force cancel on the blow so she received the full impact.

The two embattled ninja fell back from a height of only three dozen feet to land the same distance away from each other. The calm girl landed on both her feet ignoring the ache in her shoulder. Lee on the other hand had barely managed to land on his feet aided by one of his hands. From the one eye that was still open he could see the ground before him blur with what he feared was double vision. After catching his breath he brought his bruised face up to meet the piercing glare of his opponent.

"You're going to pay for hitting me" she resisted the urge to reach up and rub her increasingly aching shoulder.

Lee spit out some blood that had been gathering in his mouth. "I'm not done yet" he gritted his teeth, chasing away his faltering vision. Lee's speed had not decreased in the least as he disappeared once again.

As the sound-nin began to guess where he would come from this time she was surprised that he appeared right before her. She glanced down in case she needed to react fast. This was when she noticed something curious. She had landed right next to the battered boy's weights where they had landed from her deflection. He reached down and gripped the clasping straps of both weights.

There was one significant difference besides just the added weight between these and his previous model. He had spent many nights sewing the weights together in just the right way as to provide himself with a secret weapon.

"STRIKE!" his hands flashed up, his wrists snapped, and the weights tore. They tore in such a way that the cloth that had held them side to side ripped until each weight block was end to end. He had only sewn the edges of the cloth with a second layer that would allow such a tear. The weight blocks arced up like whips towards Urashihara.

She had to admit that it was quite an unorthodox weapon she was being attacked with, but it still made no difference. Her hands came down upon the makeshift whips and canceled their kinetic force. The smug smile she allowed herself almost seemed to transfer seamlessly to Lee when she realized her mistake.

The whips may have had their kinetics canceled upon initial impact but the remaining length still continued to whip around. The force of her striking the middle of their length caused the ends to arc back towards her. Before she could bring her hands up both ends of the whips smashed into her shoulders. As she staggered back the crack of her left shoulder let her no she was in serious trouble.

Lee pressed his new advantage, the smile on his face disappearing under a look of concentration. He struck out first with his right than his left hands, putting his whole body into the attacks.

Urashihara learned from her past mistake and this time brought her whole arms into the block, catching both whips length wise along her arms and easily canceling their kinetics. Before his whips had even struck her arms he launched himself off the ground and put himself into a spin like a corkscrew at the same time releasing the weights. His spinning feet slammed into her vulnerable chest knocking her hard into the ground. She bounced once, and managed to get one hand underneath her. She pushed off, performing a flip and landing unsteadily back on her feet.

Rock Lee had one last trick to try against her failing defenses. He put on one more burst of speed to once again appear in a flash before her. Without giving his feet time to touch the ground he struck out with both fists. He had to resist the urge to cheer when she brought both palms to bear on his attack. Instead of letting their hands collide he stopped his attack just a fraction too short of hitting her hands. He could actually_ feel_ her chakra attempt to stop the nonexistent kinetics. He took this opportunity to unwrap his clenched fists to lock fingers with her.

By this point he had figured out that she could only use her bloodline from her hands or feet leaving him free to attack if those appendages were occupied. He pulled against her arms and used the strain between them to bring his feet into her chest. He didn't stop with just one solid attack. He preceded to repeatedly landed kicks all over her torso. He landed over two dozen kicks in this fashion before she started to falter and he lost his horizontal position. When he could no longer support either of their balance he delivered a double kick to her solar plexus one more time. This last violent attack rocked her straight back into the air until she struck a tree over nine yards away splintering the bark behind her.

He landed somewhat effortlessly on his two hands. He lowered himself closer to the ground before pushing off and putting himself through a series of acrobatic flips before landing solidly on both feet.

Lee readied himself into a ready stance, not willing to bet his life on his combative abilities in the face of this extremely dangerous opponent. Pain and heat wracked his body as he finally started to feel the effects of his intense combat. A cool air kicked up suddenly sending shivers along his up and down him as it cooled the sweat on his body. He continued to watch her still body slumped against the tree for a long time before deciding this fight was over. "I'm sorry" was all he had to say.

If he had waited only a few more moments he would have seen a cloud of dust suddenly blow away from the silent body of Urashihara like a bubble of air had burst. Her eyes snapped open as her body began to crackle with a demonic chakra. After a few moments in this state her body seemed to raise up as if being held up on strings like a marionette. Rock Lee felt the pressure wave of dirt wash over him, forcing him to turn around. Before him stood the 'resurrected' body of his previously downed foe.

"You. _Will_. Be. Sorry." Urashihara now had to contend with the ridiculous amount of chakra unspooling from within her body rendering speech rather hard. Lee put himself back into the earlier battle stance one more time.

_This is getting ridiculous. How much longer is this all going to take. _He paused, for the first time allowing himself to remember his companions. _I sure hope Naruto-Kun and Hinata-San are alright.

* * *

_

Jiraiya looked around the bazaar he was strolling aimlessly through with a greedy eye. He sure did like this city. 'This city' was actually the biggest center for gambling, Mafioso, and other illegal things in all of fire country. It was the main reason why there wasn't much attention brought to it on maps or road signs. The lights of all the neon signs shown like gems in the morning light, and the sounds of many dubious activities being carried out in the open was like a dull roar.

The booth girls were gorgeous as always making it hard for him to remember why he had come here. To his credit he had already picked up a few essential items for his training regime he had planned. There was only a few more pieces left to buy, but who said his eyes couldn't shop as well?

"I sure hope those crazy kids are finding something to do to keep busy". He chuckled to himself as a particularly voluptuous girl beckoned him to a stand selling fried squid.

* * *

Naruto steeled himself for the worst as he felt the chakra from Kaeri grow. Three months ago he had felt this same chakra from Sasuke during the fight at the waterfall. He knew it was Orochimaru's curse seal at work. As he watched Kaeri he had to wonder what he was going to be able to do now. Would he have to use the Kyuubi, again? _That bastard fox, is he the only thing I can use against Orochimaru's freaks?_ He pulled out another kunai from his dwindling supply, not that he thought it would be much use at this point.

As if to punctuate his fears the curse seal finally showed itself. From the way it was growing he had to guess the original mark was somewhere on her back. Unlike Sasuke's mark that looked like a bunch of small mutated blobs this was distinctly different. Markings like vine tendrils coiled all over her body until every inch of her skin was covered in a forest of jet black vine markings.

The curse sealed girl brought her hands together. Only the seals for tiger and dragon flashed before she reached out her left hand. Nidhogg disappeared in a poof of smoke from where it lay and than reappeared in her outstretched hand. After that had been done her gaze lift to meet his. "Ya should'a killed me the second I was on th' ground. Now you'll die so ya won't have tah regret it".

* * *

Hinata couldn't see what was going on within the smoke orb Katsu had staggered into. She had waited for minutes now for the enraged ninja to start a renewed attack on her. Just a few moments ago her vision had started to act up. The images her bloodline enhanced eyes generated were faltering. The distance she could see and the chakra images she was receiving changed wildly by the second. She had deduced rather quickly that it must have been that chakra cloud she had stepped through that was doing this to her.

She almost thought her eyes were truly starting to fail when she saw a monstrous force of chakra suddenly appear in front of her. She had to concentrate here eyes to see back into the normal spectrum to confirm what her Byakugan was telling her. To her dismay her eyes had not been acting up when they showed her that monstrous chakra.

Someone closely resembling Katsu stood before her. He had removed his hoody revealing only a fishnet shirt underneath. His body was covered in weird markings, all interconnected, in the shape of crescent moons. She had never seen the like before, and could only guess what they meant. The scariest thing of all to her was that he no longer showed signs of fatigue from her Jyuuken strikes.

* * *

"Activated" was the only word he spoke. With this he jumped past her into the smoke orb still behind her. She spun around to face the orb, her stance becoming firm once again despite the growing pain in her head. For the first time since she had been teleported to this grove she felt like she might not make it.

Lee had to figure that all of his last set of blows had landed perfectly on Urashihara, and none of them had been canceled to his knowledge. _So why is she standing, I don't even think I could have stood after that_.

Her skin began a transformation he had seen only once before. Kimimaro's skin had undergone the same change when they had fought those months ago. This curse seal looked different than the one that bone monster had used. Her body quickly became engulfed in a swarm of linked tattoos that closely resembled curving 'Z's'. Before he could say or do anything the sound-nin flexed her arms, and in some way caused them to start pulsing with a dull blue light.

Urashihara was quite content with doing all the talking at this point. "You have seen Orochimaru-Sama's gift once before. It is unfortunate Kimimaro-San expired then, but I will not give you the time to summon an ally to aid you like he did" She extended her arms out towards him.

Lee maintained his composure despite himself. At this point he could only do as much as his body would allow him. "The fires of youth give in to no one!"

* * *

**A/N: I know I can be a little long winded with my character descriptions but I can't draw at all so this is my only real outlet. Let me know what you think. No matter what I write I'll say right now that there will absolutely no love triangles or tetrahedragons or what the hell ever. Relationships between characters in Naruto are potentially complicated enough without adding more dimensions. I figured Hinata could at least by this point trained herself to use the Byakugan without seals. Don't worry if you feel like you missed something, she still hasn't opened that scroll. Another thing to note is that I put some personal growth in here for Hinata and not Naruto and Lee because she has had the least amount of time to grow out of them so its time for a little catch up. The attacks I come up with will be in English sadly, because I'm already running the risk of butchering Japanese with the names I pick out for my characters. Kaeri means to come back or return (like a boomerang) from what I can tell. Katsu means to split or divide. I chose Urashihara just because Ura can mean divination.**


	5. 05 Beginning's End Pt1

**I don't own Naruto**

**A/N: Just to let you all know, down the line I intend to do a chapter or two that focuses on the other Gennins and what they've been up to. Also I plan on doing a sort of set of gaiden chapters revolving around the creation of the Byakugan bloodline and how the Sharingan was birthed from it. I've also been thinking about doing a Naruto gaiden chapter, both would of course take a lot of creative liscence.

* * *

**

Jiraiya reclined lazily on a plush leather couch enjoying the pleasurable atmosphere. Two girls young enough to be his granddaughters, and in clothing that wouldn't cover a small child hung over him busying themselves with a good deal of nothing. He held a saucer of sake to his lips which he took careful sips from periodically. The bags at his feet, those he obtained from shopping plus his sad looking travel bag, received only idle kicks as he whittled away his time on such pleasurable company.

His perception of time must be horribly skewed as a rule or he would have realized he was already a hour late. Regardless of what time it actually was he did have some sense of propriety…somewhere. He handed the girl on his left with the blond hair his sake saucer before standing up. "I'm sorry ladies, but I've got to get back to my job" he reached down to gather up all his assorted bags. "It's a shame to leave you two, but duty calls".

The accurately described Ero-Sennin walked out of the bar with a stupid grin plastered on his face. He felt saddened to leave such pleasant company but he did have the brats to think about.

* * *

"I'll tear ya apart!" was the only warning Naruto received before he became aware of Nidhogg's gyrating path towards him. He hadn't even seen Kaeri prep the switchblade boomerang this time. It had been held out at her side, than without warning it was quickly closing the gap between them.

The sound-nin knew there would be no room for him to dodge this time. As her weapon sliced into Naruto's body she allowed herself a grin of satisfaction. Nidhogg carried on right through him after neatly separating the boy's top half from his bottom without slowing down. _The curse seal is jus' far too strong fer the likes o' him…_

The two halves of Naruto suddenly transformed into a poof of smoke followed by a bisected log that promptly fell to the ground. Kaeri felt her anger rise. _Is there no end to this crap, he's harder to kill than a _thousand_ roaches._ She hadn't wanted to get her hopes up with such an easy kill, but this was almost too much.

Now that Naruto had used the Kawarimi Jutsu she couldn't be all that sure where he was. "Ya think a basic Jutsu like that is the key ta' defeating my Nidhogg?" She cried out to no particular direction. She stuck out her hand towards the distancing weapon "HUH?" she cried out one more time.

Naruto knelt some distance away within the honeylocust forest watching his opponent search for him. When she stuck out her hand he instantly expected the thrice-cursed weapon to return to her grasp. When he didn't see it return to her he started to panic. _If I can't even dodge it with all that room in the clearing I don't stand a chance with all these trees in my way._

Kaeri searched for the seals she had put into the gears of Nidhogg. When Orochimaru had given her the curse seal she had devised a way to use her own seals to control the boomerang once in flight. She wasted no time in activating the Jutsu by 'shooting' her chakra into the seals forcing a connection to form. Right before it would have hit her she swung her arm wide making the boomerang followed the motion.

Naruto almost couldn't believe his eyes. Right before the sealed girl was going to be cut down by her own weapon she whipped her hand around, and the weapon veered away. He watched as she somehow slung the boomerang on a new orbit without it even touching her hand. Nidhogg sliced towards a new section of the forest as quickly as it had exited. _Is she going to cut down the whole forest until she finds me?_ He ducked down lower in his stand of bushes hoping he could go unnoticed while he formulated a plan.

From the short exchange they had she had activated the curse seal he deduced that she was particularly weak when it came to Taijutsu. He could only think that this would be his only advantage. He tried to call up the genius that allowed him to perform those blinding sets of Taijutsu combos that he had used against Sasuke, but the situation was different now. Something he couldn't identify had taken him over then, and he had just acted without thinking. Whatever he was going to do now he would have to do it fast, the entire forest was slowly being hacked to pieces all around him by the oscillating weapon. _Should I use the Rasengan?_

Kaeri was finding that she was having to add substantially more chakra every moment just to keep Nidhogg going. She had cut down over one hundred trees by this point and that brat didn't seem to be anywhere. Pulling her weapon closer than flinging it back out in the opposite direction made her notice the pain in her hand. The effort of using the Jutsu kept her hand cloaked in a flame-like chakra aura which was a testament to how much of her curse enhanced chakra she was using up. Her hand was starting to ache with the strain, forcing her to consider other options.

Naruto had finally resolved to charge her when the blade flew wide of both of them and Kaeri put it in a sharp turn that brought it screaming towards him. He ducked as quickly as he could, which was almost too late. The boomerang sliced through the tree nearest him knocking a chunk of it into him. "SHIT!" he knew with out a doubt that his involuntary scream had just given him away.

His opponent quickly thrust her ever turning arm straight up to the sky. She hadn't missed his little outburst, and now saw that she had her opportunity. Nidhogg struggled to follow the invisible command by changing into a vertical position that turning quickly skyward.

When that block of wood had nailed Naruto's shoulder he had been flung onto his rear, not the best position to defend himself. He could only follow the path of the spinning weapon as it gained more altitude. _Somehow I don't think that that was a miss._ He managed to keep his eyes glued to Nidhogg as he scrambled to stand up.

Kaeri closed her fist, instantly shutting off the connection she had with her weapon. Despite the pain still in her right hand she slammed her hands together in that same hand seal that allowed her to perform the advanced Kawarimi Jutsu. Faster than the blink of an eye she disappeared from the middle of the clearing.

By the time Naruto had gotten to his feet the switchblade boomerang had disappeared into the sunlight high overhead. When he had chosen his hiding place it was because there were many bushes and trees in the immediate area to hide himself. He noticed that if his crazed foe pressed an attack here he would be at a serious disadvantage.

While Naruto was busy scrambling for the clearing Kaeri re-appeared high above the ground right next to her beloved boomerang. Her grip was so strong when she grasped one of the handles that it only managed one more rotation before stopping dead. She released her grip and slapped her hands onto it's joining piece and gave a small push, than a twist. After this she ran her hands down the blades till they came to rest on both handles. A strong pull separated the boomerang into two identical halves in her hands. Separating Nidhogg like this produced two blades that gave her an excellent edge in close range combat. Also, splitting the mechanism in half like this would have made them vulnerable as the tips of these new blades under normal circumstances. She had, however, devised a second mechanism for just such an occasion. Springs hidden within the first mechanism sprung upon separation, snapping two hidden blades over the vulnerable halves. This completed the process giving her two blades with body-long edges that easily made up for her melee deficiencies.

She slipped her hands through the holes in both blades to start the seals for yet another Jutsu. When she was finished she shrugged the blades back into her hands. "Air Sniping Fall Jutsu" she cried, despite the fact that the boy far below wouldn't have been able to make out what she said at this height.

Naruto made the clearing in only moments, his eyes immediately began searching the area for Kaeri. His plan to close in quick with Taijutsu obviously was now compromised. _Damn, where'd she go?_ Something made him look skyward in the direction Nidhogg had gone. He was awarded with a metallic glint off to the side of the sun. He pulled out a handful of shurikens from his pouch, ready for whatever was coming. _Oooh I don't like this._

This Jutsu was the most recent one she had developed. It reduced her wind resistance to almost nothing while also propelling he at near break-neck speeds. She rocketed back to the ground from her considerable altitude, her blades hugged close to her sides.

In an instant Naruto noticed the change in the object he was looking at, which was getting closer at a ridiculous speed. Without giving himself time to think he flung his shurikens at the descending object. Right after that he jumped back quickly trying to get away from the things impact point.

Within seconds Kaeri had closed the gap with the ground. During her descent she felt like there had been something that bounced off her pressure bubble, but there was no way for her to be sure. Right before contact with the ground she realized that she was going to undershoot her opponent. With the curse seal empowering her body she shifted her trajectory at the last second.

Too late he had realized that it was actually Kaeri that had been descending upon him. When he had backed up he was sure that she was going to run herself into the ground, however. His surprise couldn't have been more complete when the missile-like girl changed her course in the instant before she hit. In a split-second she hand managed to pull a 90° angle, putting herself right in his face.

The sound-nin was glad that this particular Jutsu allowed for some ridiculous course changes with almost no time to react. The effort of changing her course killed almost all her velocity, which was perfect for how close she was to Naruto. The second she was parallel with the ground her hands whipped forward bringing the blades to bear on the shocked boy. Her left arm struck first, aiming for his chest followed by the right arm that aimed for his head.

Naruto hadn't had time to even consider Kawarimi this time. The first blade sliced through the ruins of his jacket and his shirt. There was a sudden blinding pain telling him that she had struck home, and he didn't have time to cry out before the other blade came slicing in from the other side. By some stroke of luck he felt it chip the edge of his forehead protector, knocking it off and saving his life at the same time. He had no idea how bad the cut on his chest was, but he was still alive so he needed to strike back.

As her two blades now swung wide Naruto rushed into the gap Kaeri had created. Unsurprisingly she brought her blades back, this time bringing the flats to bear against him. On instinct he brought his arms up to block, in effect stopping his head being crushed between the halves of Nidhogg. Using the pressure against his body as leverage he lifted his feet off the ground and shoved them into her chest.

Kaeri was knocked back only slightly and didn't waste time before swinging her blades back towards Naruto. He jumped high, spinning and bringing a foot down towards her head. Kaeri countered by quickly tucking the right blade against her arm and using that to block. Without slowing she whipped the left blade up to bisect Naruto. Naruto saved himself only by rolling off the blade he found himself standing on. He fell to the ground in a tight crouch. His leg swept out in an attempt to trip her which she promptly jumped over.

Kaeri preformed a flip after her small jump, bringing both blades smashing into the ground parallel to each other. Naruto had already vacated the strike zone, only raising her frustration. He brought his hands together in another Kage Bunshin seal, summoning himself exactly nine clones "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Kaeri grinned, no matter how many clones he summoned at this point it no longer mattered. She ripped her blades out of the ground, sending rock flying as they did, and charged towards the first clone. One after another the clones jumped at her in a line. The first one she cut through with no resistance, and the second one met a similar fate on her blade. Immediately a third clone jumped at her, not having the time to bring her blades back to bear she kicked out, destroying this clone just as easily. Two more clones came in fast, prompting her to bring her now ready blades up to meat them. Before her arms had even finished slicing wide two more clones filled their brethren's spots. The two clones wrapped their arms around hers in an attempt to stop her death dealing blades.

While she was struggling with her twin burdens the two remaining clones were already taking action. One clone grasped the other's arm tightly than began spinning. After it had gained enough velocity the grounded clone released his grip. The clone-projectile flipped through the air, it's fists first knocked Kaeri back than his feet dealt her a staggering blow.

In a state of rage Kaeri crushed her arms together in a bear hug. The three clones exploded violently into smoke freeing her of their annoying presence. She recovered in time to witness a curiosity. The last remaining clone that had flung the now destroyed clone was thrusting his fists rapidly at the upraised palm of the real Naruto. She could see a spinning ball of pure chakra forming in that palm. Something told her she had to act now. There was no choice but to drop Nidhogg's halves if she was to perform a Jutsu that could save her. Her hands came together, at first slowly, than gaining speed towards the end. Dragon, Bird, Rat, Ox, Dog, Bird, Horse, and finally Boar. After this she threw her hands wide, yet quickly brought them back out straight in front of her. This act was to gather as much wind as she could using the pull of her chakra "Hurricane Corridor Jutsu!" The wind forces she had gathered spun rapidly and than she forced them forward with a spike of her chakra. The effect was a concentrated cylinder of spinning wind that shot from her palms straight at Naruto and his dangerous looking Jutsu.

Naruto had already completed building up his Rasengan when he saw Kaeri finish her hand seals. Subconsciously his remaining clone picked up on what needed to be done. It quickly reached into his kunai pouch and pulled out one of only three exploding tag kunai Naruto kept on him. When he flung the explosive kunai her Jutsu was already activated. The two attacks met each other mid-distance with a great explosion as the wind attack ripped into the explosive tag.

When the explosion rocked the clearing Kaeri had been in the process of picking up her blades. She had already picked up the right blade, and was forced to shield her eyes with her free left hand. This break in concentration cost her when very suddenly Naruto burst forth from the dissipating explosion, chakra ball in hand.

There was no time to guess what that weapon could do. The sound-nin brought up her right blade in a feeble block. She braced the blade with both her hands, not a doubt in her mind that she would stop the attack.

Naruto broke through the explosion and immediately thrust his Rasengan enveloped hand at Kaeri. His cry of "Rasengan!" was drowned out by the instant scream of the metal being shaved away by his Jutsu. He had to struggle to keep his hand steady as the Rasengan tried to skim off the surface of the unyielding weapon. To his surprise Kaeri made the mistake of trying to press him back, but only succeeded in giving the Rasengan the leverage it needed. With a great shriek of metal the spinning ball tore into the blade, spinning it out of her hand.

Kaeri felt her pinky and ring finger break as the right half of Nidhogg was flung skyward out of her hand. She stoically ignored the pain by pulling out the remaining blade from the ground and snapping it towards the off balance boy.

Naruto was already falling back, with no opportunity to perform a dodge. The remaining clone quickly reached out and pulled him back by the shirt, the slicing blow missed by a good margin. There was only a few feet between the combatants now, but both of them were taking a breather instead of attacking

Kaeri had two choices open to her now, use level two of the curse seal or cancel her current seal and retreat. Her body no longer wanted to support the strain it was under thanks to the alien seal. _If I activate level two...I can…but…NO!_ Her body made the decision for her by a sudden burst of pressure squeezing her heart. She had to act fast. With a powerful thrust from her feet she propelled herself backwards and cocked the remaining blade back over her right shoulder. Without warning the ruined blade embedded itself into the earth near Naruto. It had bent and twisted under the force of his Jutsu, a spiral of torn metal adorned it's surface.

Naruto had been flexing his hand since his Rasengan had failed to make contact with Kaeri. He stared intently at his hand trying desperately to think of something else to do. Thinking like this made something occur to him. A few times using the Rasengan he had released the chakra control containing the sphere, and it had caused a massive explosion. He knew he could use this information to his advantage at once._ She's not going to fall for another close range Rasengan so I'm gonna have to think of something._ To credit his never ending well of luck, an idea struck him out of the blue. _I know what I can do_.

Before he and his clone could even start up another Rasengan his slightly crippled opponent had flung her blade at them. Naruto didn't stop creating his Jutsu nor attempt to dodge this time. Just as the clone began to add spin to his growing Rasengan the blade flashed past him. It had moved so fast that he hadn't even felt it cleave through the Scapulae muscle of his neck until it was already buried in the ground behind him. An enraged roar of pain burst from his lips as the damage finally registered with his brain. This break in concentration made him loose the clone, and along with it, the Rasengan's stability.

Naruto ducked his head in pain barely able to restrain his right hand from snapping up to grasp at the wound. He had to act fast to save his Jutsu. _Hey bastard fox… answer me…give me your power now. Do it or we're both dead!_ There was no acknowledgment from the demon living inside him, but the sudden influx of foreign chakra told him he had been heard. Even as he began pouring chakra back into the Rasengan he could _feel_ the Kyuubi's chakra enwrap his neck an begin healing his wound. He raised his head back up to glare death at Kaeri, his eyes now a deep orange and his iris' being replaced with that of a fox's slit. His whisker marks deepened and widened with the release of the demon chakra.

The Rasengan flared back to life in his palm, he jumped. With one kick he propelled himself at the curse sealed ninja, closing the gap rapidly. "SUCK IT DOWN!" he cocked back his right hand, orange chakra spilling off his neck and hand. Before he reached his target he thrust out his arm towards her. "Rasengan-"

"I'm not gonna fall for that again!" Kaeri yelled back. Her hands already flying in the seals for the Hurricane Corridor Jutsu. Once again she thrust her hands out before her "Hurricane-"

Naruto didn't let her get further than that "-Explosion!" He spread his palm wide and introduced a string of reverse flowing chakra which immediately caused a massive forward moving explosion, engulfing Kaeri. The explosion ripped up the ground and nearly covered the distance to the three line in an instant, the dust cloud it kicked up went even further, ripping through the trees and bushes. The sound was deafening, drowning out even the loud sound of the defeated sound-nin smashing back fist into a tree on the edge of the clearing.

Naruto skidded to a halt in front of Kaeri, his clear blue eyes staring down at her as the Kyuubi's presence left his body. Right before his eyes the curse seal was disappearing from her body. The only indication that he hadn't killed her was the short rise and fall of her chest under the now ruined shreds of her vest. Seeing this he finally let himself relax. Without the pressing distraction of battle, attention was once again being forced to the burning wound on his neck. _Damn you fox, you couldn't put forth the effort to heal me?_

To his surprise, in a voice barely above a whisper, the girl before him started speaking to him. "Count yourself lucky boy… if I was of the mind to really kill you there would… have been no chance of you surviving my level two". The sound of her voice carried a faint choked quality to it, almost like there was liquid within her lungs…

Naruto put everything he had left into not falling to his knees in pain in front of Kaeri. "Your one of Orochimaru's right, what do you know of Sasuke?".

A string of hacking coughs interrupted whatever she was about to say, after a few moments of steadying herself she slowly lifted her head to stare him straight in the eyes. "What if I don't tell ya, will ya kill me?" she managed a week laugh despite her position.

"Just tell me what Orochimaru has done with Sasuke…now" he did his best to adopt a threatening posture.

"You're jus' like Kabuto-San San said, you've completely forgotten your companions the second ya think of Sasuke-Sama huh?" She tried to manage a smile, but that quickly degenerated back to a grimace of pain.

Naruto started, he had forgotten all about Hinata and Lee. The second he thought he could have gotten some information about Sasuke everything else had been driven from his mind.

"Ya know, that ugly girl that was with ya probably isn't fairin' to well 'gainst Katsu. He has a thang for carvin' up girls". This time she actually did manage a smile.

_Hinata…_ As much as he needed information about Sasuke what he had to do now became obvious. Without a second glance he turned around and made for the far side of the clearing at a dead run. Ignoring the pain throughout his body Naruto began his search for Hinata.

* * *

After the crazed boy had stepped back into his smoke orb Hinata had stood at the ready, her Jyuuken stance unwavering in the face of the unknown. Her vision was still distorted, but if she had to take a guess she'd say that it was getting slowly better. It could be hours before it got drastically better, however. _I wish I hadn't been so reckless and charged in without thinking. I wonder where I've gotten that from._ She smiled despite herself knowing she didn't really have to guess to know _who_ she had gotten her impulsiveness from.

"I bet you're now realizing that my special powder wasn't the smartest thing to ignore aren'tcha?" His voice came from one of the smoke orbs furthest away from her.

Hinata spun to face where his voice had just come from. She knew that he hadn't left the smoke orb that had been in front of her, yet she couldn't think of how he had actually pulled it off.

"How do you like my Rapid Movement Jutsu?" suddenly his voice came from an orb off to her left. "Don't worry, there will only be some momentary pain".

Hinata spun, not knowing where his voice would be coming from next. Her breathing began to quicken, her pulse started to race. _ I can't let him beat me after coming this far. I can't let him get to me, not now. _Those weird marks on his body and this new Jutsu had her worried despite herself. Most of her life she had allowed herself to despair, or to let self doubt rule her. It was crazy to think that she could have changed herself . _I wanted to change myself, to make myself better so I could finally be worthy of Naruto-Kun's praise._ Her past failures flashed before her eyes, all her failures during missions, and the disappointment in her father's eyes when she couldn't use their bloodline like Neji could._ Maybe this will be the last time I screw up-_ She released the chakra in her eyes, returning herself to normal vision- _but I'm not going to die without incident!_

She may have canceled the all-seeing eye of the Byakugan, but with the return of her normal vision the growing sense of vertigo disappeared. "Instead of running your mouth why don't you do whatever-"

A kunai suddenly cut across her left arm from behind. She whirled around only to see yet another smoke orb in front of her. Gritting her teeth in frustration, she put a hand up to her wound finding it was only a shallow cut. This was the major downside of loosing her Byakugan.

Katsu's special Jutsu worked along the same principle of the Shunshin Jutsu. He could teleport between any of the smoke orbs he created in the blink of an eye after forming the hand seals only once. With his extensive arsenal of ninja weapons he could start up a storm of flying weapons in just seconds flat. For now he was content with just playing with her. _It doesn't look like I'm gonna get much fun out of her, her eyes are turned off… oh well._ He pulled out two more kunai from one of his pouches.

Without the Byakugan Hinata was turning her head in all directions hoping that she could see another attack coming this time. Out of the corner of her eyes she caught two lightning fast kunai shoot out of two different smoke orbs, one right after the other. She barely managed to duck under the first one coming at her head, but the second one came in low, piercing her calf before she could react. A cry of pain escaped her lips as she fell to one knee. She reached down, and with a another pained cry, yanked the kunai out of her leg. The only good she found with this was that the weapon hadn't impacted on bone. Instead of tossing the kunai away she gripped it tighter in her hand.

Before she could even catch her breath a pack of shurikens came at her from the right. Without thinking she leapt forward, the foremost shurikens ripping through the back of her jacket. Once again a kunai came at her from the front. As she landed her hand came up and deflected the kunai with her own.

Just as she was about to try an attack of her own she felt something from behind. She pushed herself sideways as a kunai sliced through her hair. _Too close!_ Another kunai came at her from slightly to her left then another from her right. She managed to dodge the first one, but the second one grazed her cheek as she tried to spin away from it. As her spin stopped she blocked another kunai that almost nailed her in the throat. Purely on instinct, when the next kunai came in fast she brought up her hand to meet it. She forced chakra from her palm right before contact rewarding her with a limited Kaiten effect. The kunai deflected high into the air much to he surprise.

Katsu couldn't actually see his opponent, but he knew where she was based on which weapons passed by and which weapons struck home. Using this Jutsu he had a near limitless supply of weapons by simply appearing in a smoke orb where an already thrown weapon passed through. Those that hit were well used, but those that missed would be put right back into use until they hit. The only drawback of this style of combat was the absolute lack of information going either way.

Over three dozen more shurikens and kunai were flung at Hinata in only the span of a minute. Out of all those only two more were actually deflected by her chakra. She now sported many cuts and gashes, and she had a kunai embedded in her back at a difficult spot. She hadn't even let herself feel elation at discovering she could use the Kaiten, at least to a very limited extent. The only thing that kept her from despairing at this point was she had noticed something that could change the tide of this battle.

Between the six smoke orbs that her opponent had set up back in the beginning of their battle Hinata had noticed a pattern to the weapons being flung at her. If she was correct in her assumptions in the next four seconds he would appear in the smoke orb directly to her left. She dodged an attack from behind, that by this point she knew was coming, than dodged another attack from directly in front of her. Not wasting any time, Hinata pushed off from the ground towards the appropriate orb. Both hands struck out simultaneously filling with chakra at their Tenketsu points. She was rewarded with her hands impacting on something solid.

Katsu felt that he was faring well. He was getting less and less return on his weapons after many minutes of keeping his Jutsu active. He felt it was almost time to step out and finish the job when suddenly, after completing another transit into his latest orb he was struck in the chest. The instant burst of pain was like an explosion within his breast. All thought was erased from his mind as he was flung violently backwards out of his protective smoke orb. His feet backpedaled furiously to try and retain his balance even as Katsu himself tried to restrain the feeling that his organs had liquefied. His arms came up in a feeble fighter's stance, fully expecting Hinata to come at him through the smoke orb. What he hadn't expected was the smoke orb he had been forced out of to simply dissipate before his eyes. The dispersed smoke revealed Hinata standing firmly with a kunai clutched in her hand.

One of the few things Hinata had thought on during the extensive attack made on her was how the smoke orbs kept their barrier of smoke up for so long. She had concluded that it must have something to do with the bombs themselves that Katsu had thrown. When she had Jyuuken struck him the next thing she had set about doing was finding and eliminating the smoke bomb. A quick stomp from her foot had destroyed it easily enough revealing herself to the unprepared boy. Now that she could clearly see him those markings on his body made him look far more monstrous than she had originally thought.

With this knowledge of the smoke bombs firmly in her mind she spun around, loosing the kunai from her hand. One of the few things she had ever picked up on well was kunai throwing. Though her attack had been half blind it struck one of the smoke orbs dead center, which quickly dispersed. She preceded to pull out all her remaining kunai and throw them at the orbs. The four remaining orbs quickly dispersed revealing kunai lodged in the small balls.

She spun back around to face Katsu, only to find he had prepared yet another attack against her. A large group of senbon needles rushed to meet her. The only thing she could think to do was jump quickly to the side while protecting her face with her arms. Many of the needles found their mark along her arms and legs, and she felt at least one pierce through her jacket effecting a shallow wound on her stomach.

The two combatants stood facing each other, both straining from their various wounds. Hinata reached back and yanked out the kunai from her back with a yelp of pain. The waves of agony that shot through her body caused her to loose the grip on the kunai which promptly fell point first into the ground. Keeping a close eye on Katsu she than proceeded to try and remove as many senbon needles as possible. _I've never felt pain like this before, but I can't give in or I'll die-_ she wrenched out the last needle with a surge of teeth-gritting pain- _Aah!… I can't let it end here._

Almost as in reaction to her own care tending Katsu began furiously rubbing his chest trying to get the feeling of life back into his insides. Even with his curse seal enhanced body he didn't think that he could survive another one of those strikes. After a lot of useless rubbing, he concluded nothing he could do was going to help the pain in his chest. Keeping his eyes deadlocked with hers, he slowly moved his hands away from his chest and down to his feet. _Here goes the first of many last resorts._

Hinata watched as Katsu reached underneath the folds of his pants and into his boots. No matter what it was he was reaching for, it was time for her to go on the offensive. She made the decision that it was now time to reactivate her Byakugan, no matter how messed up it was. She rushed forward as fast as her injured legs would allow while letting chakra concentrate back around her eyes. "Byakugan!" she released the chakra and her ethereal vision flooded back to her. The second it did so she saw what he was reaching for. Her right hand came around fast filling with the organ destroying chakra as it came. To her despair the wounds all over her arms and legs were slowing her down significantly. Compounding her problem was the fact that her Byakugan was still pretty fuzzy.

Hinata's Jyuuken strike was ready about to hit home when both of Katsu's arms flashed upwards forcing her to reverse her movement right before she got within attack range. If she had continued her reckless charge she would have received twin gashes up her chest from two very sharp-looking tomahawks. The weapons in question were made completely out of steel and very thin, making them obvious members of the throwing class of tomahawks.

Katsu quickly pressed the advantage by bringing one tomahawk high and the other low in a scissoring motion. Hinata once again backed away, but quickly pushed forward after the attack had passed. She meant to strike both his wrists thus getting rid of those weapons, but she was once again denied an advantage when Katsu reversed his grip, and brought both weapons back in scything arcs. Hinata responded by spinning sideways out of their path. She clumsily brought a hand up to block his next sweeping attack, but this made her unprepared for his next move.

Katsu snap-kicked her in the stomach sending her sprawling away from him. Hinata skidded backwards before falling forward onto her knees. By this point she was absolutely exhausted, yet couldn't let herself give in just yet. She looked up defiantly at Katsu as he slowly approached her. Despair finally took hold of her at that moment. _I'm going to die here… there's not going to be anyone to rescue me this time…I've failed, and I just don't think I have the strength left to get back up._ She hung her head in shame, not wanting to see her end coming.

Katsu raised his left hand high above his head, the tomahawk glinting dangerously in the sunlight. "This is the end for you. You've been much more of a pain that I had been led to believe, but no matter-"

Interrupting him with great force, a massive and deafening explosion rocked the grove. The very air seemed to vibrate with the violence of the explosion, and the cacophonous sound seemed to come from everywhere at once. Katsu's concentration broke immediately as he looked around for the source of the interruption.

Through it all Hinata had kept her head down, not reacting in any outward way to the explosion. In her thoughts though, it had been like a switch, jarring a memory loose in her brain. It was a memory of right before the final part of the Chuunin exam when Naruto had stumbled upon the one training ground she herself had been hiding in. She had been surprised in herself that day, it was the first time she had ever held an actual conversation with him. She had run that single conversation over and over a thousand times in her mind. One thing she had said to Naruto in an attempt to cheer him up came back to her. _"-Because you fail… that gives you the strength to always get back up. I believe that's what true strength is-"_ She had told Naruto that, believing those words truly applied to him, but did she have the right to say those words if she felt they didn't apply to her?_ I'm not strong like he is, he's come so far, but I've only managed to stay the same._

Breaking it's way into her thoughts was the reverie of all the times Naruto had given her advice and support. They didn't number in the many, but they were precious memories to her. These warm memories sparked something in her. Should she just give up now because Naruto wasn't around to see her fail… and die? Had she really changed so little since Naruto had shown confidence in her that she hadn't gotten to the point where she was, at least, in the smallest way worthy of that praise?

_NO!… I AM DIFFERENT NOW. Who I was in the past isn't who I am today. I've been able to change, even if it's just the tinniest bit, right now that's enough. I can't allow my self-doubt to rule me any longer. Naruto-Kun and Neji-Nii-San believed in me, I'm not going to let that trust be wasted. NOT NOW!_

Her Byakugan vision focused in a burst of clarity. Her boost in self confidence brought with it a rush from somewhere deep within her chest. She felt the pain all over her body leave her as adrenaline pumped rapidly through. Her new resolve brought with it a second wind.

Her head snapped up to glare at Katsu. He had noticed the sudden movement and brought his attention back to her despite the explosion still reverberating through the air. When he looked down at her now he saw something in her eyes that would have truly frightened him if he only could have identified what it was that was so different about her.

Hinata was almost too stunned to move. When she looked at the once victorious boy she could now see something that hadn't been there before. Points of light had appeared all along his chakra control system. These points where on every inch of his body, and must have numbered in the hundreds. At first she thought it must be her eyes still acting up for the lights were so blurry that she could have mistaken what she was seeing._ Tenketsu…_

Katsu raised his tomahawk back up _That explosion wasn't something Kaeri or Ura can do, damn. I've got to end this right now._ He brought his hand down, expecting no resistance from the girl.

Hinata's hands whipped up, the index and middle fingers pressed tightly together on both hands. If what she was seeing were really Tenketsu than she might have a chance. Even if she had never been able to see the chakra points before, her father and drilled into her the forms and striking methods till she passed out on some occasions.

Her right hand came up, quickly intercepting Katsu's overhead chop while her left hand streaked towards his chest. Her right hand struck right on the Radiocarpal joint where the major chakra artery was severing all chakra going into that hand. As his right hand smacked limply into her shoulder the weapon bounced harmlessly out of his hand onto the ground behind her. Her left hand immediately after that struck right under his left clavicle. The blow to her shoulder made her miss the intended target, his heart.

Using Katsu's face as an indicator for her success Hinata surged forward. To someone like Neji or Hiashi her form would have been terribly sloppy, but to the untrained eye, like her opponents, it was deadly. As she rose to her feet her ands began to work furiously. Her next set of strikes landed on either side of his stomach. The set of strikes after that both missed completely. Gritting her teeth she struck upwards with her left hand, and downward with her right. Tenketsu in his hip and jaw were hit simultaneously.

Every consecutive strike released a small spike of blue chakra as she forced more and more of his Tenketsu closed. Each strike, successful or not, elicited a cry of pain from Katsu. By the time it would have taken Neji to completely seal one hundred and twenty-eight she had only managed thirty-two. Hinata was shocked to fight that the more she attacked the harder it became to see the points. By the time she landed the last sealing strike she had completely lost all sight of his Tenketsu.

Always raised to be prim and proper, her list of curses were few. "Shoot!" she cried out while Katsu was busy staggering backwards. Not to be deterred by the obvious failing of her Byakugan she rushed forward one more time.

His left arm may have been completely paralyzed by this point, but he could still use his right hand. He desperately grasped for a cylindrical object strapped to his belt. With blood dribbling out of his mouth he smiled. _This bitch isn't going to get me so easily. She'll find that a neutered dog still has a bite._ He could feel the chakra within him ebb and flow erratically. He was never what one would call proficient with Jutsus, but now there was no way to use his Shunshin to escape. There was only one option left open to him now.

His grip on the cylinder was already weak enough, when Hinata landed two final Jyuuken strikes on his stomach he completely lost his grip. She saw the object the second it left his hand. The force of her blow sent him flying away from her and the object. Her super-sight pierced it, immediately informing her it was some kind of exploding seal bomb. Her reflexes aided her immediately by forcing her into a backwards jump as fast as her tired muscles would allow.

The bomb erupted in a violent explosion of orange and yellow. The proximity of such a large explosion was ten times worse that the far off explosion from earlier. Thankfully Hinata had managed to clear the initial blast radius, barely escaping the engulfing flames.

The blast wave from the explosion lifted her off her feet while sending her flying backwards. She put herself through an awkward flip before landing on the ground. As unsteady as she was her hands shot out to support her self as she immediately started to fall forward once landing on the ground. Dirt and rocks tore into her palms as she finally brought her self into a sliding halt. After remaining in that position trying to catch her breath she managed to unsteadily push herself up. Her knees quickly locked together under her uncertain balance. Her bloodline eyes saw through the expanding dirt cloud, seeing that her opponent was still standing as well. Her breath came out in ragged gasps, her body was reacting poorly to all the wounds being traumatized by that explosion.

Katsu continued to stare through the settling dirt and dust until he finally caught a glimpse of his opponent. She was in much the same condition he was, he found. He too was making an effort to just stand. _This is ridiculous, there's no way either one of us can continue like this…what to do, what to do…

* * *

_

Naruto was traveling as fast as he could from group to grove of countless trees. Nothing he found looked like any battle had taken place anywhere near here. He felt his last resort was to try and summon Gama-Bunta to aid in his search. His hand came up to swipe some blood of his neck for the Jutsu when something forced him to stop. A large explosion from somewhere off to his right immediately grabbed his attention.

Forgetting the summoning, Naruto made for that direction with as much haste as he could muster. Whatever that explosion had been was enough of a lead for him. He dashed from tree to tree only hoping he wasn't too late.

* * *

The only thing running through Hinata's mind was _Did I become stronger?_ She couldn't explain any plausible reason behind the sudden appearance, than disappearance of the Tenketsu. She honestly didn't know what was keeping Katsu standing either. The only thing she could do now was force a standoff.

Katsu knew he was in trouble. With the erratic nature of his chakra the curse seal was starting to fail. He could feel it slowly try and pull back into his curse mark. The pain in his chest and left arm near dominated his thoughts.

The standoff continued like this for many moments until a crash suddenly came from the trees behind Katsu. The boy spun around, instantly regretting the move as he almost lost his balance. His stagger was probably what saved him when a orange flash came out of the closest tree straight at him. As it closed the gap he could tell it was the loudmouthed Naruto that Kaeri was supposed to deal with. Naruto's punch clipped Katsu's shoulder instead of rearranging his face like what was intended. "What did you do to Hinata?" the blonde boy cried out as he sailed past.

Naruto skidded to a halt facing the still spinning sound-nin. Katsu staggered backwards as fast as possible to get away from the enraged leaf-nin. "Do you think you should be beating me up, or do you think you should be aiding your poor friend over there?" Despite the pain he was in Katsu managed to indicate the girl behind Naruto with a flick of his head, sneer firmly back in place.

Naruto glanced over his shoulder to see Hinata's surprised face stare back at him. Seeing that she wasn't dying he turned his attention back to her opponent. Too late he realized that he had given Katsu enough time to make a hasty retreat. The boy was already quite a few yards away when he realized what was going on.

A pained cry from Hinata immediately made him forget all about Katsu. Naruto spun around only to see Hinata's knee's buckle underneath her. Not giving time for thought he sprinted towards her. Realizing that there was no way he was going to prevent her fall he leapt and skidded underneath her, catching her falling form in his arms. He instantly despaired at all the small bleeding wounds over her body.

"Hinata! Hinata are you all right?" He shook her gently hoping for a response. His hands cradled her shoulders, and he was doing his best to not squeeze any of her wounds.

Hinata's eyes focused on Naruto's concerned face after almost a minute of confusing images ruining her perception. "Na-Naruto-Kun?"

"It's okay Hinata, that guys gone now". He looked around him, kunai, shurikens, and burn marks were everywhere. "Wow Hinata it looked like you really pulled a number on him though" he grinned down at her, hoping to stir her out of her delirium.

Hinata felt very tired now, the strength left her muscles and the pain started to come back. _Naruto-Kun… I wanted to change for your sake, but it doesn't look like-_

"Hey Hinata, you need to stay awake. Stay awake for me alright?" He had heard that people in conditions like this could not loose consciousness or their condition could quickly worsen. "Why don't you tell me how you kicked his butt huh? I bet you tore him a new one".

Hinata shouldn't have been surprised by the bottomless well of confidence that was Naruto. "I…saw the Tenketsu… I saw them" she let out raggedly. To her his smile was brighter than the sun far overhead.

"Ooooh? That's amazing Hinata. I knew you wouldn't need that scroll to do a whole bunch of cool things". He slowly attempted to remove her ruined jacket. He may not know the first thing about healing Jutsus, but as a requirement to become a Gennin he had learned how to bandage wounds. Their packs had been left on the side of the road so he had nothing on him. An idea occurred to him. After removing her own jacket he stripped his own mutilated jacket off, and began tearing it into strips.

Hinata looked carefully at his face, something seemed different. It took her a second to notice it "Naruto-Kun… your headband is… missing".

He took a second to inspect his forehead, so it was. "Ah don't worry about that Hinata, I lost it during my fight, but right now I've got to try and bandage these wounds".

Hinata, suddenly realizing that Naruto was actually touching her shot up from his cradling care. Her heart was beating far more rapidly than she ever thought possible. The rush of being touched by Naruto seemed to give her a little bit of her energy back. After catching her breath she turned around to face Naruto. This was a surreal moment for her. Never in her wildest dreams did she think Naruto could be so concerned for her, to the point where he was ripping his favorite jacket up for makeshift bandages.

Naruto grinned for her benefit "See Hinata, you thrashed him and still have the energy to go". He himself was finding it difficult to keep his cool being this close to a girl as cute as Hinata. _Wait…cute?_ He looked at her with this thought reverberating through his skull. He shook his head, he rarely thought on the cute quality of girls these days, and with the situation they were in, now was not the time. "Hey Hinata… hold out your arm for a sec". He proffered one of the orange bandages towards her.

Despite the blood lost already, there was apparently still a whole lot left for her to blush with. Tentatively she stretched out her arm for Naruto to start bandaging up all her cuts and punctures.

Both of them slowly forgot about the deadly fights they had just participated in while Naruto quietly attended to Hinata's wounds. They concentrated on the work Naruto was administering, not looking at each other lest the other one saw their embarrassment.

Naruto head abruptly snapped up, he had almost forgotten about something. Hinata forgot his blush as he saw the seriousness on his face. "What about fuzzy brows?"

* * *

**A/N: Sorry Lee isn't in this one, i don't want my chapters getting ridiculously long, he'll be in the next chapter. I did my best to give Kaeri a Kansai dialect with emphasis on slang, but I don't know if I succeeded or not, but whatever. I don't know if anyone noticed, but I tried to make my scene partitions to look like twin roll scrolls.**


	6. 06 Beginning's End Pt2

**I don't own Naruto**

**A/N: Lee has a special, formal way of speaking. As much as I'd like to be able to, researching the specifics of his dialect would probably give me a headache, so I'm just gonna try my best. I bet everyone was a little frustrated that there werent any partitions to denote a change in the scene. In my documents they were there but for some reason they never showed up in the submitted documents. I've made it all better now, now that it's finally been brought to my attention.**

Jiraiya stood at the very spot where he had told his three charges to wait for them. His first thought was that they were playing some kind prank on him by hiding, but that's when he saw it. There were minute signs that _six_ people were here at some point. His charge's packs, neatly arranged off to the side, were the only things to indicate they hadn't just got up and left.

_Where the heck are those brats? _The old man unconsciously pressed fingers to the bridge of his nose and began to massage. He had a really bad feeling that he wasn't going to like the answer. The fact that their were six distinct impressions in the grass around him, with no tracks leading away from this spot worried him. Letting the bags in his other hand drop to the ground absentmindedly Jiraiya also slung his travel pack off of his back.

He brought a thumb up to his teeth and bit down, producing a small welling up of blood. Quickly he set about performing the hand seals necessary for a Kichiyose Jutsu. When he finished he simply turned his right palm facing up, and with a tiny poof of smoke a small toad appeared in his hand.

The small toad in question was Gama-Kichi, one of the many sons belonging to the frog lord Gama-Bunta. Like his father he possessed bright red skin and also wore the same blue cloth vest as his father. Gama-Kichi raised a limb in greeting "Yo, what's up Ero-Sennin?"

Jiraiya was taken aback "Ack! What do you mean Ero-Sennin?" His face bugged out slightly at the mention of that infamous namesake.

"I dunno, it's what that funny kid calls you so I thought 'why not?'". The little frog gave a small shrug like it was no big deal.

Forgetting his surprise at the insult Jiraiya's face reverted back to one of seriousness. "That's why I summoned you here, I need you to find Naruto for me…he seems to have gone missing". Jiraiya knew that once someone used their chakra to summon specific animals like the toad clan those summons could in turn track the summoner no matter where they were. It was a useful tracking system that never lost its bond over time, but only worked if they belonged to the same pact scroll.

Gama-Kichi gave his best toad smile "I bet that kids causing you problems again huh?"

Jiraiya nodded slightly "yeah, but this time it could be serious so if you could…" He let his small friend figure out the rest.

"Oh dear, right than" Gama-Kichi immediately set himself to hard concentration, trying to locate his human friend as fast as possible.

* * *

At this moment Lee could only feel even more gratitude for the Godaime Hokage than he already did previously. Without her insistence on him taking that awful medicine he figured that his body would have given out long before now. _I hate to admit it, but it looks like my body would have taken much longer to recover if it hadn't been for her ministrations._ He needed everything his body could give if he was to last much longer.

His opponent Urashihara seemed to have gained a substantial second wind with the use of that strange curse seal he was becoming familiar with. He hadn't had all that much luck against her from the start, and with that skill enhancing seal he had to wonder what his chances would be now.

"I will attack now" Urashihara spoke in the same monotonous voice, barely audible over the distance between the two. She crouched forward, prepared to start the 'second round' when Rock Lee disappeared from in front of her.

Lee knew that attacking her head on would not net the best results, but letting her attack first would give him even worse results. He put his speed to good use by dashing away from her frontal field of vision to appear directly behind her. As his foot struck out towards her back he kept his eyes fully on her arms. Even with this careful attention being paid he was still surprised when his opponent burst into action.

Urashihara's arm snapped up and back snatching Lee's striking foot without her even looking. She spun around bringing her arm up and over her head as she did so, stretching Lee's leg up in the process. She had absorbed the entire impact in a much different fashion this time. The only outward indication that Lee's attack had been nullified was the slight flare in the chakra aura around Urashihara's arms.

She held Lee attention wholly "I'll tell you now that the more you attack, the more I'll be able to repay you back". The curse seal brought with it the ability to 'stack' absorbed kinetics until she felt it necessary to use it all at once.

Not to be deterred by this Lee struck out with a fist aimed at her chest "I shall do my best!" he exclaimed sarcastically.

In response the sound-nin crossed her free arm under his seized leg, once again blocking his strike. Before the blue flash of absorption was given the chance to flare up she flung her arms up high. This sent Lee flipping upwards end-over-end. She quickly dodged backwards when Lee tried to bring a foot down to her face while still in the flip.

Lee landed with an acrobatic flip, righting himself in time for a graceful landing. Urashihara was upon him in an instant. The aura around her arms flared up as she pushed her hands forward. With that flare Lee felt the air around him condense, this was definitely something new. When she was still a few feet from him she crouched down low to add stability to her attack. Lee had prepared himself for a Taijutsu attack, but was caught completely unawares when she came up short of his defense.

An explosion of chakra erupted from her hands. It felt like once again he had grabbed a lightning bolt. Being knocked backwards was apparently something he would have to get used to fighting this girl. The initial strike seemed to his hit his entire body all at once, and he certainly still felt the pain as he rocketed backwards. Lee could only thank the powers that be that he didn't hit a tree in flight before he got the chance to right himself. After a series of complicated flips and twists he brought himself back to the ground with his legs spread wide to steady body.

Doing his best to ignore the full-body pain Lee quickly began searching for his opponent. She wasn't where she had been just moments ago back in the clearing. He cautiously started moving forward, his head whipping back in forth desperately trying to find some hint of her location.

Walking in this fashion he made it back to the clearing where he proceeded to continue walking. It wasn't until he'd almost reached the middle of the clearing that the ground started to shake. At first Lee feared it might be a concussion, yet even as he steadied himself the ground continued to shake more and more. Just when he thought the ground would split from all the shaking he heard a faint cry that seemed so far away thanks to the earth's shaking crescendo "Doton: Teeth of the Earth King!"

As soon as the cry finished a spike of rock shot out from the ground right in front of Lee. He quickly reacted by leaning backwards from the spike. His head rocked back in time to see another spike coming from behind. A quick twist saved him from impalement only to land him in the path of another spike. He quickly back flipped, placing his hand on the second spike he had dodged and pushed off. This short trip through the air gave him the vantage point to observe the entire clearing erupting with the stone spikes. He came down over a patch of still sprouting spikes aiming in different directions. Unfortunately one of the spikes was aimed straight at his stomach which prompted him to kick out violently with his foot. He decapitated the spike leaving a somewhat flat surface a couple feet down it's length. The spike continued to shoot out of the ground forcing Lee to brace his feet against the spike.

Lee leapt into the air only to see that every inch of the clearing was now covered in a veritable forest of stone spikes. The Taijutsu specialist landed in a crouch on two closely spaced spikes, his arms hanging limply between his legs. As he looked around he could see that the Jutsu had stopped and the rock forest he now found himself in was silent. _ This has to be a Jounin level Jutsu, one slip and I could find myself as a human shish kabob. I don't see her anywhere so I'll have to watch my step._

Without warning the spike his left foot was resting on began to splinter and crack. Before his eyes the surface of the rock was shifting into concentric razor-sharp circles. His sandal began to slip on the razor protuberances, and he could feel the thick sole being sliced to ribbons as it slid. Shifting his weight to his right foot he once again pushed off.

Midair he finally encountered Urashihara again. She jumped from the edge of the stone forest onto a particularly large spike, than pushed off from that to rocket towards him. With only a bare minimum force stocked up the sound-nin ripped into Lee.

Lee was careful this time around to not retaliate in any way. Reaching the apex of his jump Lee simply blocked or dodged all the punches and kicks that were thrown at him. As he began to fall back to one of the spikes he realized that he couldn't have attacked even if he wanted to, his opponent's speed had increased to be able to match his own perfectly. If he had the advantage of speed taken away from him than that left him only one thing left to do.

_Gai-Sensei… once again I must ask you to let me make an exception to our rule. I will finally be able to prove my Nindo… TODAY!_ It would take a few moments before he could completely release the restraints on the initial gate so he had to do his best to stall for time.

Urashihara tried to bring the heel of her palm up to Lee's chin only to find he was already arching back away from the strike. He continued falling backwards until he could bring his feet up to her chest. Just as the sound-nin's other hand came in to deal some damage Lee pushed off forcefully from her chest. The speed Lee put on once again gave the impression of disappearing. Lee had pushed off her back to the ground, using the spikes to cut a path around her. The minute explosions of rock tracked in a wide circle around her than behind, than all of a sudden she 'lost sight' of him. Just as her feet were ready to touch down on one of the spikes Lee materialized before her.

"INITIAL GATE OPNE!" Without giving her time to react Lee planted a hand on the spike, bringing his foot up into her chin with a crash. His sudden increase in power and speed overwhelmed her, giving her no chance to throw up a defense, much less try and cancel the overwhelming power being brought against her. The force of the kick sent her flying upward while Lee prepared himself. Earlier he had loosened the bandages around his arms, and they now unfurled for his next move. With a great leap he brought himself directly behind his airborne opponent. _Kage Buyo, and next is… _Lee let his unfurling bandages quickly encircle Urashihara before pulling his arms taught, catching her tight in their embrace. Next, his arms came up and smashed her against him in a tight bear hug. He immediately began spinning as fast as he could manage, getting faster and faster as he brought them back down to the spike forest.

The enwrapped girl was completely confused by this technique, mostly puzzled by how quickly his speed and strength had increased without warning. In the end such things were useless against her abilities. As she felt them spin at this ridiculous pace the chakra on her arms began to spread out and seep into both their bodies.

If Lee could actually feel anything other than the G-forces during his Omote Renge he would have immediately known something was up. As this was not the case he continued with his reckless spin, letting his bandages loosen right before impacting on the large stone spike Urashihara had first used.

Lee released Urashihara into the rock with a force strong enough to smash bones right before impact. He flew away from the crash site at the same speed they had been descending. Before his high speed escape let him gain any distance a hand shot out of the dust cloud caused by the crashing attack. With a quick swipe the azure chakra cloaked hand whipped wide catching both of his extended bandages. A sharp jerk brought closer to the dust cloud against his will.

As Urashihara's other fist came smashing into the side of his face out from the cloud he let out a grunt of pain. He tried to let the impact of the kinetic enhanced punch carry him away from her, but he was pulled back by the hand still holding his bandages. The cloud had dissipated enough to where he could now see the following attacks directed at him. First one knee and than another were brought up hard into his gut. He retaliated by kicking at her proffered knee. The damage done to his body from the Renge and than Urashihara's own attacks greatly reduced his available strength to provide an adequate attack. She took the blow without a flinch while delivering a disorienting retort across his temple. Finally releasing her grip on his bandages she quickly laid her hands down onto the rock spike.

Lee landed against a tightly packed section of spikes with only a light impact. Both his hands shot out to grasp onto the spike directly behind him, steadying himself from falling into the much denser forest farther below him. He could only watch as the nigh unstoppable sound-nin poured all the remains of her unspent kinetic chakra into the large spike she stood on. _The heal gate! I must open it or I won't be able to go on much longer_.

Urashihara was forcing as much of her kinetic chakra into the spike forest's relatively delicate structure as quickly as it would allow. The ridiculously clothed boy was getting harder and harder to deal with by the second. This next Jutsu would decide how the rest of the battle would go, in her favor or his. She stood up to her full height and immediately began forming a succession of hand seals. When she finished her seals both hands stretched out, looking as if they were trying to encompass the entire spike forest "Shattering Pressure Wave Jutsu!"

While Lee struggled to force open the second of eight chakra gates the forest of spikes started to shatter in a gigantic expanding wave starting from Urashihara. The entire area of stone spikes shattered in the span of only a few seconds. Directly following the shattering wave was a much faster expanding wave of shrapnel filled explosions.

Urashihara nimbly jumped away from the shattering and subsequent explosion, landing on the outskirts of the rapidly disintegrating stone field. As both waves reached the edges of the spike forest they rebounded and combined, speeding back to the center. When the combined wave reached the center a gigantic explosion of rock and dirt blew skyward. The explosion flung a sizeable chunk of rock her way which she nonchalantly blocked with the palm of her hand. The force cancel of that shrapnel added only a little bit back to her kinetic stock.

That last explosion had been quite impressive, but the only area really effected was the center. Lee had been far enough away that only the initial destruction wave had effected him, though what an effect. In a brilliant stroke of luck his heal gate had activated right when the wave had torn through his area. When the spike all around him had been destroyed he was hit with many chunks too fast for him to try and dodge. He now sported many rips in his spandex outfit, and his heal gate was quickly reducing all the bruises and cuts he had gained. _My heal gate… it will only keep me going for so much longer. It's now or never._ There was a technique he had been developing for certain situations, though it would be quite a leap to include this particular situation under that criteria. He just had to wait until the dust cloud cleared so he could see his opponent again. He looked around him, seeing that there were plenty of useful materials just laying around.

The fact that she now had a near impossible time keeping track of the leaf-nin was forcing Urashihara to rapidly change her tactics. In her mind, there was no way that he _hadn't _managed to survive her last attack. She was ready to put her hands back for another round of seals when a fist-sized rock shot out of the now thinning dirt cloud straight at her. With a flick of her wrist her left palm was put into position to easily intercept the stone bullet.

As Urashihara's hand flashed blue with the absorption Lee appeared to her right. To block the thrown punch she crossed her left arm over the right successfully nullifying the attack.

Lee barely let his fist collide before he retreated in a disappearing flash. He reappeared to the left and behind Urashihara, immediately reaching down and picking up another good-sized rock. After he cocked back his arm and released the deadly projectile he disappeared once again in a burst of speed. The process of attacking, throwing, and attacking took only the span of an eye-blink. _With my next attack, she should be right where I want her._

Urashihara's arms were still crossed when she felt the next attack coming from behind her. She stretched her right arm even further under her left arm while turning slightly to meet the projectile. Before she could even intercept the rock Lee appeared before her, delivering a striking kick towards her head.

Lee's kick came up and under his opponent's, only nicking her chin before he had to pull back lest she try and catch his foot. He once again disappeared, appearing quite a distance back from Urashihara but still facing her. Wasting no time, his hands shot downward to a very large stone chunk from one of the spikes. His fingers sunk into the rock, and he strained his muscles as he began to pull

All of these interlinked attacks where starting to wear Urashihara down. She didn't even have the time to think before she became aware of something large high above her. At first she didn't know what to expect, but a quick glance revealed that Lee had thrown a body-sized chunk far above her. She had stored up enough chakra to be able to blast that boulder to smithereens, however once again Lee was able to act before she could.

Lee had launched the boulder into the sky as a finale for his technique, which had thus far done a good job of ruining Urashihara's balance. At any moment the rock would start falling back down to earth so he had to act fast. He waited until her attention had been pulled towards the rock before acting.

The sound-nin reverted her attention back to the desperate boy a hairsbreadth too slow. Her hands instinctively reached out to block an attack as he appeared before her once again. Too late she realized that he had stopped out of the reach of her hands. Against her will a small look of shock showed itself on her face as Lee brought up one leg and than back down to the ground with impressive force.

Lee had attacked Urashihara in such a wild pattern to maneuver her to a certain place so he could finish his technique. When he had finished she was standing right in front of a length of rock balancing on a smaller chunk of rock. His heel hit the edge closest to him with all the strength he had left sending the opposite end of the plank under her guard and into her chin. He felt the second gate begin to fail so he didn't bother to check if Urashihara had been knocked into the air or not. It all depended on his third gate, the life gate. _If I try and open up the harm gate as well… I could pass out… It's still too early to try going that far._ His fists tightened and his muscles strained as the third gate began to open. Gai had never told him why his skin turned red at this point, but knowing made little difference now as his skin darkened and major arteries bulged. He could feel the power flowing around him now, it was time. "LIFE GATE OPEN!" his arms flung wide, releasing the full power of the gate. After crouching down and coiling his muscles, the jump he preformed was so powerful the ground ripped up in his wake.

Urashihara managed to recover enough of her senses to look down as the red blur rocketed up towards her. A red-skinned monster seemed to have replaced her opponent, she could feel the power radiating off of him like some kind of beast. Faced with an even grater increase in speed from her opponent she didn't have anytime to throw up a defense. His arms swung wide, striking her dead center in the chest. Her vision exploded in a cloud of red as the blow rocked her entire body, her breath vacated her lungs like it was never there.

Immediately after the first blow Lee let his hands continue until he could grab her wrists, he than steadied himself to bring a knee smashing into her gut. The force was so strong that she was knocked parallel to the ground. Wasting no time he brought his right arm up to her shoulder, letting go of her other wrist at the same time. He swung himself wide with just his right hand until he could plant his feet on her back. Not wanting to waste all his energy before he could finish attack Lee opted for just a 'light' push off from her back.

While Urashihara was sent in a crash course towards the ground Lee twisted his body mid-air so he could land safely on the large chunk of rock he had thrown earlier. He pushed off from the rock with an explosive force that shattered the rock in the same fashion as the ground before. As Lee shot past her at a he grabbed her underarms, taking her with him. With only a short distance between them and the ground, and shooting towards it at a less than safe speed he quickly applied all the strength he had left to put them spinning in another initial lotus. He released Urashihara far higher up this time, opting for a different style of attack this time. As her spinning body crashed into the ground Lee was right behind her, spinning himself. No longer fearing any absorbing techniques he twisted in the air, bringing himself parallel with the ground. His heel smashed down into her back with a resounding 'crack'. This was not enough to stop his spinning so he let his body continue spinning a few more times until he brought a fist up and let it nail her in the same place as his heel had. As the ground beneath her cracked and shattered Lee let out a cry of "GRAND LOTUS!"

Almost immediately after his punch connected he felt his muscles start to burn with pain. His gates slammed shut, and all the pain they had been blocking him from came at him like a freight train. His body jerked up violently as waves of pain from his torn muscles wracked his body. He staggered back until eventually he tripped and fell onto his rear. His body may have healed enough to withstand normal combat without any problems, but the use of his gates hadn't come back fully apparently. His hands managed to support hold him up from falling any further back. Lee's eyes stared forward blankly as he tried to deal with the mind-numbing pain his body was going through.

With more than a dozen bones broken, and darkening bruises developing over her exposed back and stomach, Urashihara had been effectively knocked out. Her body periodically convulsed involuntarily while her mouth hung open in a grotesque, silent scream.

Eventually Lee felt his senses come back to him one at a time. If there was one thing he was good at it would be recovering quickly, he kept all his attention focused on his fallen opponent to distract himself from the pain. Every punch she had landed on him had that added benefit of her metal knuckles and he was certainly feeling their added effect now.

Lee continued to sit there for an indeterminable amount of time until eventually a flash of movement caught his attention. It was that creepy looking boy that had been with Urashihara and the other girl when the leaf-nin were assaulted. Lee immediately tried to push himself up to a standing position, but the pain in his chest and legs burned through that desire instantly. He could only grit his teeth now at this new intrusion.

Katsu looked at the weird looking boy in the green spandex, than down at Urashihara at his feet. She looked like she had been killed, the only thing that forestalled him just leaving her there was the slight rise and fall of her chest. _Shit, why did she have to live_. "You stupid wench, I knew things would go wrong if we listened to your plan. Look at what they've done to us and its all your fault". He toed her body rather harshly trying to not let his anger get a hold on him. He'd already retrieved Kaeri, but at least she had been conscious. "So much for being a leader huh?"

Lee could only watch as the sound-nin bent down and placed one of Urashihara's arms across his shoulders. He stood back up, barely able to support her weight with his burgeoning strength. Katsu's eyes never left Lee as his free hand reached out to his companions free hand, forming that special Shunshin Jutsu. Before Lee could even utter a word of protest the two sound-nin disappeared in the blink of an eye. He continued to stare at that spot where his fallen foe had been until eventually he felt fatigue start to wash over him. His body seemed to subconsciously react to the removed presence of enemies. He fell backwards, passed out before his head even hit the ground.

**A/N: So at least once in every battle there was a big explosion, I know it's pretty much oversaturation, but oh well. I have a feeling I have'nt been portraying Naruto correctly so at least for right now I'm going to try and portray him as a little bit more impulsive and dense, for now for now...**


	7. 07 Temporary Respite

**I don't own Naruto**

**A/N: So I guess the first order of business is that I am actually sorry I haven't updated in a year. It's my first bout of "freedom" in a long while and I hadn't realized it had actually been almost a year before today. Sorry. Seriously, show me how much you care by giving me a review, even if it's only a sentence. I could be playing Supreme Commander or working on Photoshop wallpapers (I'm getting pretty good) but I've decided to devote some time to this so review and keep the author happy/motivated. If I could just get one person to regularily review that would sure grease the wheels.**

The sun had traversed a good bit of sky before Naruto and Hinata managed to find Lee. The two injured Ninja had wandered around aimlessly for so long that they had even found Naruto's 'lost' headband before finding the third member of their cell. The boy in question lay on the outskirts of a huge area of destruction. Their initial reaction was one of fear upon seeing the massacred plot of land. Naruto was the first to reach Lee forcing the more injured Hinata to trail behind him. With a great show of shouting and shaking Naruto tried to rouse his friend from unconsciousness within the shadow of an numerous shattered rock spires and tree stumps. Thankfully it only took a few moments more of annoying prodding from Naruto before the battered Ninja showed signs of awakening.

Lee had to manage a intelligible "Naruto-kun?" before the excited boy finally quieted down. If he had a choice in the matter Lee would have definitely stayed unconscious if the earthquake in his head was the reward for wakefulness. He barely managed to get one eye open through the pain to see Naruto leaning over him, and his body protested even the slightest movement. "How…long was I out"?

Naruto relaxed upon seeing his friend in a somewhat stable condition and immediately began helping Lee into a sitting position against one of the spires. The danger to Lee being over Naruto spared a moment to check on Hinata. At first he thought it was odd that she wouldn't have been right there with him to check up on Lee, but it was immediately apparent to him why she had held back. Both of them had been injured in their fights and the long search through the forest afterwards had not made their injuries any better he knew.

Hinata showed this fatigue a lot more than she thought she would. After seeing Lee safe it was as if everything that had been keeping her body moving up to this point just decided to vanish in an instant. She had slumped against one of the few remaining tree stumps and lay there, her eyelids to heavy to resist. The rise and fall of her chest the only indication she was still alive.

Naruto was ready to simply chalk her state up to an obvious state of fatigue when he noticed something that instantly chilled his blood. Beneath her hand, clutched tightly against her waist was a slowly spreading stain of a very dangerous color. Every second that passed as he stared at that damned stain left him with a growing number of unwanted emotions rising to the surface. Anger, fear, confusion, and hopelessness were not helping him right now, and he felt that through their combined efforts any rational emotion or thought was being quietly routed. This situation was completely beyond him and he didn't need one of his smarter friends to point it out to him.

Not knowing where to even begin his head darted back in forth between the unconscious or worse teammates around him, his body jerked along with the movement as best it could. "I'm a-a-a-" Dammit guys _I'm a trickster not a doctor…I can't-_ "I have no idea what to do here". Still not knowing what to do he fell to his knees next to Hinata, his hands shakily coming upon hers, still clutched to the even now worsening stain.

What he expected to be able to do was uncertain, but he knew that if he didn't at least try something he was going to loose it. Just as he was about to pry her hands off the wound the sound of bursting air preceded by an already dispersing cloud of smoke passing over him signaled someone, some _ninja_ was now behind him. Despite Hinata's worsening condition he felt this new threat was worse. His free hand edged toward his kunai pouch-

"Boy I don't believe you know what you're doing, remotely so". A dry and ancient-sounding voice answered his hostile reaction. "I also don't believe you want to draw a kunai against me. What I do believe is that you want to move aside so I can examine the patient".

At the mention of the word "patient" made Naruto spin around to face the voice that confused his ears with both hostility and what could pass as friendship. What greeted him was definitely not on the top of his list of expectations. Even on his knees he was taller than the very old woman that stood before him. The old woman wore a simple black robe with a white shawl wrapped around her neck. Her ghostly white hair hung limply around a very wrinkled face, itself marred by a large mole on her left cheek. What caught his attention next was the very familiar person dwarfing her size next to her.

"E-Ero-Sennin?" was all Naruto managed to get out.

"Yo" Jiraiya uttered without his usual jolly inflection "get out of her way Naruto, let Chiyo do her thing". As Naruto's heightened anxiety began to abate he noticed the toad sitting on his Sensei's head.

The old woman didn't waste any time for the unresponsive boy, and harshly pushed him over safely clearing the way to her "patient". Naruto stared dumbly as Chiyo began to work on Hinata. Hands almost to fast for him to follow separately worked to pull out various tools and vials from under her robe while simultaneously cutting a large portion of Hinata's jacket and undershirt away.

A large load of questions died on Naruto's lips as Chiyo once again spoke up, again to him. "Come here boy and help, and that waste of space behind you better tend to the boy while we're about this". Naruto felt his body move with out any consent from his head as he was propelled into another sitting position right in front of his injured friend. "You, put your hands here while I prepare a poultice-" as her right hand held pressure on Hinata's wound her left forced Naruto's hands to occupy the position of the right "-and before you ask why I'm not using a wonderful medical Jutsu that blasted Sannin dragged me away from a somewhat import mission and my chakra is almost gone so…"

Naruto barely heard her as most of his concentration was focused on the girl who suddenly looked very small and the wound he was trying to keep pressure on. Mercifully the amount of blood seeping between his fingers was considerably less than he feared and the old woman's face betrayed no hint of a dire situation.

Behind him came the scratchy voice of the Ero-Sennin "Lee's okay boy, he's just unconscious. At any rate this is the Chiyo we were meant to meet once we reached Sunagakure. Gama-whatever-" a small snort came from above Jiraiya's head " -found her while he was looking for you actually".

Again Naruto barely heard what was said beyond the confirmation of Lee's safety. That combined with the color returning to Hinata's face let him be aware at how tense his body had become and allowed him to start loosing up. Something else was being made aware to him, he had been staring at Hinata's face the entire time. He usually didn't pay so much attention to someone's face, in fact he hadn't paid much attention to Hinata at all. Her weird, dark personality seemed to avoid all but the intense scrutiny, but sitting here, now, with his hand on her waist and his eyes locked on her face he couldn't think of a reason why he never paid attention. What was more he couldn't begin to fathom why he suddenly felt the need to pay attention now. The features of her face were painfully obvious to him, a small scar next to her ear, a tiny cleft in her lower lip… _what the hell am I doing?_ Today seemed to be an emotional roller coaster as he now was very confused as to why he was thinking this way. In keeping with the day's events he didn't have very long to ponder as he was interrupted again. This time the interruption was an unexpectedly pleasant one as he felt a small hand very slowly slide over his. His gaze darted down to see Hinata's delicate hand placed gingerly on his. When he looked back to her face he could see her eyes had opened slightly.

Whatever moment had been developing there was ruined by the scratchy voice of the old lady next to Naruto. "She's the Hyuuga? I've never seen a Hyuuga become injured in all my days, Konoha's standards must have slipped…MOVE". Chiyo wasted no time in shoving Naruto out of the way, her hands simultaneously knocking away Naruto's hands and slapping the finished poultice onto the wound.

Hinata cried out in pain the instant the poultice was applied to her wound. Naruto shot to his feet, his fists clenched. Any confusion with his emotions was dispelled when a serious amount of anger came straight to the surface. "What the hell do you think you're doing you crazy old bag! You're doing more harm than good, and-"

"Boy, just because the medicine doesn't taste good doesn't mean it isn't working". Chiyo looked directly at Naruto for the first time, serenity painted across her face. "I may have once killed Konoha ninja in my day, and gladly, but being now only a medical-nin I swore a Hippocratic oath and I intend to follow it". Naruto's fists gradually unclenched and he allowed himself to relax. The old lady looked from Naruto to the slowly stabilizing Hinata "Naruto, I believe your name is, I am old and sometimes I forget myself. Being suddenly approached by someone who was once one of my greatest enemies and told that in the interest of our village's _alliance _I needed to give him my urgent attention… forget it". She leaned closer to Hinata and began placing a holding patch over her poultice.

Naruto, taking as much in as his simple mind could allow, heaved a great sigh at the effort. "Thank you Obaa-san". He turned to face Hinata again only to find that through barely open lids she was already looking at him. For the first time since he could remember he had nothing "witty" to say, no off hand jest. For once he simply held the gaze for a brief moment before turning away and walking over to the now fully conscious Lee. _Things were so much easier with Sakura… and Sasuke. I think I'm out of my league_.

* * *

As Hinata watched the object of her estranged affection walk out of her field of vision another one took his place. It was an old woman, or at least looked like an old woman. She felt very weak for some reason and her vision blurred for some unknown reason.

"I don't know the specifics child, but you were wounded, in battle, and have since recovered but are still weak from the ordeal". The scratchy yet somehow warm voice reminded her of her grandmother.

"You must be…ummm, Chiyo-san… did you heal me?" her usually quite voice was almost inaudible in her weakened state.

"Actually… I think all I did was cause you some pain with my nasty medicine. I'm not entirely sure what happened but you were already on your way to recovery when I applied the poultice. For your sake let's hope that it's a natural healing talent on your part if you want to study under me". With that the elderly lady also walked out of her field of vision. As Hinata lay there she knew something was different, while she slept there had been a warm presence, brief, but for some reason she knew it was true. She also _knew_ that when that warmth left something had taken it's place. Whatever it was almost imperceptively different than that of the prior sensation. It felt…empty was the only way to describe it, a small feeling of emptiness in her gut quite apart from the feeling of hunger. Final unconsciousness claimed her before she could think anymore on the uneasy feeling.

Chiyo looked over the outrageously dressed boy below her, her mind on the girl even as her skilled eyes scanned for signs of damage. _That was a nasty gash, slight rupturing of the spleen, possibly, and a very visible wound. That boy… that Kyuubi Jinkuurichi… the blood on his hands could have been his hmmmm… It's never been documented before… It makes since that that vain witch gives nothing but headaches even while being allied._

**A/N: I must say I _am_ pleasantly surprised at the reviews I received so early after posting the seventh chapter, I stayed home to day solely to watch some 17 hours of Stargate SG-1/Atlantis ("threads" from SG-1's season 8 is still the most heart-wrenching one) and somehow found myself distractedly trying to write this chapter throughout. Special thanks go to **_Sauronia_** for being the first to review since my decision (want a prize?, and to **_TheRavenQuoth_** as well (is that in reference to Poe? Maybe not) and to qualify **_VenomLord's_** remark there is no reason for there to be immediate love-love stuff because Hinata and Naruto barely interact at all in canon. However other authors portray it is totally fine, but I honestly don't think they would simply just start falling all over each other. Believe me I want to get to those parts myself because I have interesting (to me) ideas but that's a long way off, I've pretty much got a solid hold on a huge bulk of the incoming chapters and don't fret, romance will play a part eventually, hell I've got to think of what to do with all the other character's. One last note, it wasn't until I actually started writing that I realized how insanely hard it is to try and stay true to the character's when you didn't create them, especially since they're all supposed to be some part of Kishimoto and I have no clue about him, so I do my best but know that I'll probably never understand them (Lee's probably the hardest, even though he's my third favorite).**

**PS: please suggest any fansite I can apply my fic to if you would.**


	8. 08 Second Step

**I don't own Naruto**

**A/N: First off I am a very happy author thanks to all the reviews and scattered PM's Ive been getting. The more you review the stronger I become so keep those reviews coming and I'll be one happy quick-to-churn-out-chapters author, but I'll probably do it regardless. A few things. I intend to keep Sasuke a somewhat involved part of the story. Another would be that despite the quick update I'm not really sure how I'm going to be setting my schedule so don't expect too too much. It would actually be easier if I didn't have to keep putting Author's notes at the beginning and ending of each chapter. I created a live journal page so people could leave comments, criticisms, and questions. I think it would be neat if I could actually chat with my fans, but its only ever been visited once so I guess that's out. One other thing is that the characters introduced in the Shipuuden arc are going to act somewhat differently then they did simply because situations are going to be really different. **

Hinata awoke slowly to the constant sound of blowing wind. At first she thought she was still outside, but it wasn't until her wits managed to find their way back to her that she realized that she was indoors. Not only was she indoors but she was somewhere unfamiliar to her. What tipped her off first was the pungent odor of various unfamiliar spices. Her body felt lighter than it normally did but at least she didn't feel any pain like she initially had feared. Her eyes told her that the room seemed to be made out of sandstone and was sparsely decorated with the standard fare of tables, potted plants, and lighting. It took a few more moments of her groggy observations before she realized that the ever-present sound of wind was coming from outside a circular window located to the right of her bed. From what she could tell there was a mild sandstorm occurring outside, the room seemed to reverberate slightly with the storm's endless assault on whatever building she was in. Turning her head to the other side yielded a view of a similarly groggy Naruto.

"Ah, H-H-" the blond boy's remark was cut off by a loud, jaw-stretching yawn "Hinata, you're finally awake. Are you okay? Chiyo-baa-chan said that you had already recovered from the…cut, but that you needed rest from the ordeal with the sound-nin". The second they were both aware of each other's consciousness Naruto sprang from the uncomfortable looking chair he had been sitting in.

Hinata, realizing she didn't feel tired or even exhausted pushed herself up into a sitting position on her bed. The scratchy blanket that had been laying on top of her concealed the fact that she had lost her jacket somewhere and was now only left with a spare white shirt of a blessedly softer fabric than the blanket. Her modesty took over quickly and she pulled the blanket up close around her. Unsure herself why she acted that way a blush never-the-less traitorously crept across her cheeks. _It's just a shirt, why did I have such a strange reaction? _"Na-Naruto-kun were you… are… Where are we?"

Naruto, seeing that Hinata was perfectly okay settled back into his chair and assumed a disorderly slouch. "Well after Obaa-chan patched you up she took care of Lee and then arranged for us to come here a little bit more quickly than Ero-Sennin thought, we're in Sunagakure now".

Naruto's relaxed nature quickly overrode the timid girl's own sense of embarrassment and she found herself more relaxed then she had expected. "We were days away when we were attacked right, how did we get here so quickly?" something else was nagging at her but she preferred to focus at one thing at a time.

Naruto jumped up in his seat and leaned forward enough to bring his face very close to her own. Hinata was finding that Naruto had a talent for being oblivious. She was both relieved and frustrated with this, but at least in this case it was a blessing as the boy in question once again overlooked the blush he always elicited. "Once the old lady had rested for awhile she summoned this really big-" Naruto spread out his arms as wide as they could go for emphasis "-puppet thing like one of those croco…gator…things-" his words slowed when his knowledge of exotic animals failed him "-we all got on it and it moved really, really fast through this river nearby for half the way and then we got to this really big desert it just kept on going until we reached here".

Hinata smiled despite herself as Naruto's enthusiasm for his story managed to catch on. It never ceased to amaze her that the blue-eyed boy could sweep her up in his enthusiasm or optimism with little effort. "That's really amazing…OH!"

Her sudden outburst surprised Naruto back into a sitting position, not expecting such an outburst from the usually quite girl. "uhh what?"

Hinata finally remembered what it was that had been nagging her. "When those sound-nin attacked us we lost our packs. Were they-"

She was cut off by Naruto's quick interjection "Oh yeah we got those too, yours is on the other side of the bed, every thing's still there from what I could tell".

Hinata couldn't hide her shocked expression before it came out "you went through my things?" There were things in there she would have rather others not go through, especially boys…well, even more so especially not Naruto.

Naruto knew were this was going. He had once gone through one of Sakura's packs looking for food. When she found out both the living and the dead tar had been completely beaten out of him. He put his hands out defensively in front of him in a futile attempt to shore up his defenses. "I uh, well… just wanted to make sure no-one had gone through our things or planted an explosive tag. I know I'm not really good at that sort of stuff but uh, I didn't see anything-" _I never did figure out what Sakura didn't want me to see… must've been a love letter to me, yeah that had to be it. What would Hinata have that's so important? _"-so ummmm please…" he trailed off as he realized he never got this far in his defense before. He looked between his fingers to see the surprising scene of Hinata _not_ getting ready to pummel him.

As if solely to compound his confusion "Oh-okay then, that was really smart Naruto-kun" Hinata hands had originally gone up to her face involuntarily out of shock, but she now allowed them to drift down and clasp in her lap. _I should have known Naruto-kun wouldn't have done something suspicious…unlike Kiba._ There had been one incident with the Inuzuka boy's dog going through her things once that still scarred her.

_Smart? She said I was… Smart?_ "You're not going to hit me?" _I don't get it, are girls really this different? _Narutoblivion set in once again.

"No, I would never do that?" She could only think that there was a reason why he would expect such a reaction from such a relatively trivial matter.

"Oh, well Sakura-chan always hit me for stuff like that. I thought that's just how it went I guess". The previously fearful boy was now filled with an unpalatable sense of confusion at this revelation.

_Sakura-san… again?_ He always talked about her. It seemed like such an extroverted girl like Sakura would always have a higher foothold on the mountain that was Naruto's affections list than her.

While Hinata contemplated her misgivings Naruto was going in a somewhat different direction with his thoughts. He wasn't really sure what was going on between him and Hinata anymore. Sakura was the only girl he had ever really had contact with in his life and as far back as he could remember. He would chase after her affections while she vied for Sasuke's while, apparently, his 'former' best friend could only chase after his hated brother like it was all some kind of leprous conga line. He was quite used to all that, yet now he found himself in a completely unfamiliar setting. The way he had acted toward the girl laying before him yesterday also confused him. The way he couldn't stop looking at her, the completely different way she treated him from what his experience told him should happen… he had no idea anymore. _I'm completely out of my league._

Both of them in their separate contemplations took their time noticing that a silence was stretching before them as impassable as the sandstorm ragging outside. When Naruto finally came out of his inner monologue he found himself in a desperately needed change of scenery. Standing up just suddenly enough to again startle the recuperating girl he made to leave the room while hastily attempting to utter a farewell "Uh, well I should probably be going, I haven't checked up on Lee yet, So… I guess I'll see you later".

_He hasn't seen Lee yet, but that would mean…_ "Naruto-kun… have you… have you been here the entire night?" Hinata's heart beat faster at the mere thought, as preposterous as it must be.

Naruto froze in his tracks at the question. True to his own personal fashion his mouth started moving as if propelled by an internal combustion engine while his brain could only manage simple steam power. "No, not… really. I was just more tired than I thought I guess and dozed off". A smaller expanse of silence passed between them now, once again broken by Naruto. " I really should get to see if Lee's okay, you should get some rest. Chiyo-Obaa-san said she was going to bring somebody by to see you later, and I think you'll need all the rest you can get to deal with that old fossil". Without another word he continued his path out of the door-less room and out into the hallway.

_What the hell am I doing… why didn't I tell her the truth. It was no big deal right?_ The sounds of his sandals scraping on the small patches of sand strewn throughout the hallway and the howling wind from outside were his only accompaniment as he trudged down the hallway. _What the hell's wrong with me? I just… have absolutely no idea anymore. It's her, I have no idea why but it's her… maybe Ero-Sennin would know. He at least spends most of his time with women though I guess I really shouldn't expect much from him… unless I like having hand shaped welts on my face._

Back in the room Hinata sat alone staring at the most innocuous looking plant in the room. If there was anything she could confess to knowing best it would be the secret ninja art of hiding what you really wanted to say. A small smile began to invade the rest of her mouth almost as if it was an act of rebellion for any corner of her mouth to even consider the act.

* * *

Three Chuunin were sent out. Three Chuunin returned from their mission. Three Chuunin had failed in said mission to bring back even one positive result. The number three was out to get him he was sure of it. Being just the latest in many cases of the number three interfering with his life Sasuke was ready to give up on numbers altogether at this rate. Before him, fresh from Orochimaru's… debriefing sat the three ninja in three separate chairs. In the right situation the man standing next to him could be far more threatening, but even now Kabuto would be hard pressed to outdo Sasuke in his current state. As the emotion of anger had proven itself as useless to him as these Chuunin in fighting his brother, Sasuke had since opted for more constructive emotions to lead his actions. Right now disappointment and amusement played out among his features, to their credit his charges kept quite the look of defiance on their faces

" You said they were pushovers, we went in with a completely skewed expectation" Urashihara was the first to break the silence, he had expected the most out of her. "No matter what outcome you expected or how well you expected us to do no matter the level of preparedness it is negligence bordering on sloth that you wouldn't give us the best intelligence to work with.

Sasuke stood there for awhile before deciding what his answer would be. "Funny you would say that considering I gave you those orders straight from Orochimaru. Wouldn't that make your anger only qualified against him? I wonder if your tongue would be so free in his presence?" The fact that the insubordinate woman didn't even flinch spoke volumes about her character to him. Katsu, the largest disappointment, shied away from such a weak threat. Sasuke had to pause to wonder why the gods of spontaneous combustion hadn't seen fit to visit him yet. _No matter_.

"Whateva' you say 'master' but ya' weren't out there fightin' them were ya'?" _Kaeri, the truly insolent one._

Sasuke spun around with a kick too fast to follow to the offending girl's forehead. It wasn't until after her head hit the cobblestone floor with a sickening smack that the other two even had a chance to react. "Your first lesson about me is that I don't deign to fight those that are beneath me. I also only let insolence go so far". The frequency of violent acts he was being forced to perform increased daily ever since he got here. Most of the incidents were truly unnecessary and beneath him however it was about the only thing the pathetic whelps Orochimaru picked up could understand.

"There were many things wrong with the way you _Chuunin_ handled those three and the list doesn't even come close to starting with whether or not I gave you useful information. As it stands only two of you managed to do anything properly. Let's just leave it at that". When Sasuke first arrived he had small doubts about whether or not it had been the right decision. Whether it was the atmosphere of this place or if it was really his heart slowly hardening his resolve, and skills, grew at breakneck speeds. Sparing a withering glare and no words for the pathetic Katsu he turned and walked out of the sparsely lit chamber. He didn't have to wait for Kabuto as he already knew that the snake Sannin's right hand would attend to their wounds before doing anything else. _His mood swings are starting to get irritating. One minute he'll carve them up for his experiments, and the next he'll be patching them up to the best of his abilities._

It wasn't until he was well on his way to the more commonly trafficked part of the complex's catacombs that he felt the familiarly slimy presence. "Urashihara's the only one truly worth the effort you know".

"I know that as well as you Sasuke-kun, but don't you think it's wonderful that three perfectly _normal_ brats could be cultured with such abilities with so little effort?" Such a dry, death-like voice really didn't have any place belonging to one who in some ancient point of time considered themselves human, but that fact continued to prove itself valid even now.

Sometimes Sasuke really couldn't tell if Orochimaru was indeed male. Their first encounter didn't help his confusion at all. "I don't care about you and Kabuto's twisted experiments. I only care about one thing, and that's been denied me for a good while now don't you think?"

Orochimaru had spent a long time around the Sharingan eye in his time, yet still found that when those eyes spun in his direction a sense of unease come over him. "I have recently finished my most recent issues with that Akatsuki prowler, and he is quietly finding time to entertain my experiments at the moment. I believe we can pick up where we left off if you wish".

Sasuke continued to stare at the untrustworthy sycophant for awhile. Despite whatever pretense his 'master' showed at not being bothered by it the last Uchiha knew what effect a Sharingan had on the man. _Three years… he's stalling if this is the rate he expects to teach me. I must find other means of improving if I'm to survive this._ "Just make sure that this time I can use what you have to teach". With that Sasuke stalked off down the corridor in search of the 'usual' place.

As Orochimaru watched his future container walk down the corridor a sinister smile came to him. _With any luck Sasuke will never catch on to what's happening to that precious Sharingan of ours. It's almost a shame he doesn't know, it would just be all the more interesting if he tried to resist._ "Soon my precious Sasuke-kun, soon, soon, soon…"

* * *

The dark, unfriendly bar was not the most of comfortable places he had ever been in his travels, but at least it an allied country for once. Narima sat across from one of his usual contacts here in the village of wind, sand, and god-forsaken sun. Even in the ever-present gloom of the bar his stylish sunglasses obscured his eyes. For a Konoha citizen Narima did his best not to downplay that fact to much. He wore a simple outfit consisting of a harshly worn mud-brown, multi-pocketed jacket, and a pair of frayed-at-the-hem dark grey shorts that stopped past the knees. He completed his ensemble with a pair of bulky steel-toed shoes and an assortment of earrings adorning his right ear. The woman sitting across from him sore the same brown flak jacket and brown pants of any Sand Jounin. Nothing really stood out about her other that the fact she decided today was the day to put her hair up in some kind of very unnecessarily complicated braid._ Women_…_ oi._

"You'll be interested to know that your charges have arrived. As you know there will be individual Sand-nin to accompany them for the first couple weeks but you've been hired to make sure that they understand all the differences between our two countries". The woman had a very throaty voice, the kind that just sent shivers down his spine. It was one of many reasons he still put up with her.

"Yes I know I'm supposed to be a neutered version of a translator or something like that. I'll go find them later, first let's get down to the _real_ reason I'm here." The quirky Konohanite attempted to smoothly stretch his hand across the table to envelope hers "Why don't we go on that date you promised me hmmm?" For his effort he received a light slap on his offending hand. "Awww come on Sosha just this once?"

"No, bad boy, sit, stay" she laughed playfully as she got up. "Unlike you I can't brush these charges so easily. I'm partly responsible for the training of one of them so I'd appreciate it if you took it a little more seriously mister". Narima seriously had to wonder if the Jounin object of his affection ever got rid of that smile on her face.

As he watched her retreating 'figure' a painful realization came to him. She had already ordered five drinks by the time he had gotten there and hadn't paid. _How many times does that make this? 1…3... 18 ... Carry the 20... Why is it I can't consider these dates again?_ He begun to dig into his many pockets for what was hopefully enough to pay the bill as the bartender shot him a glare that he must have seen how many times now? 1... 3... 18... Carry the 20. _Women… oi._

* * *

The building Hinata had been in was a good little walk away from the hospital. Thankfully sandstorms were common enough that underground tunnels had been built for most of the major building in the village. Hands on his head, and a lot of questions on his mind the strangely quite boy walked past various Sand villagers without taking much notice of them. He didn't know how some of this village's Ninja managed to brave the storms, but he figured the tunnels would be way too small if they were all to use this method of travel. For his sake the halls were blessedly labeled with proper directions to the major arteries of travel such as hospitals so he had a good chance of not getting lost. He was what he hoped was most of the way there when he quite suddenly felt himself almost pulled off balance. His right foot was stuck, when he glanced down to see if there was a whole or something he had stepped in his blood chilled. A perfectly formed hand made entirely out of sand was gripping his ankle tightly. The 'arm' of the sand appendage stretched out behind him. With a supreme amount of effort, and a good deal of controlled breathing Naruto began to slowly twist his head to look back on what was hopefully not what he thought.

He turned around to see exactly what he had been expecting to. The air very near danced with random sand particles almost like a slow moving swarm of gnats. Even that was still not enough to obscure the person standing before him. With their history it was hard to remain totally calm "Gaara".

* * *

Jiraiya, having just arrived at Lee's hospital room from his meeting with the Sun council had no reason to be impatient, but he was all the same. "You'd think that boy would have enough tact to have visited by now don't you think other boy?"

Lee chuckled slightly at the small joke despite himself and his mending ribs. "He might still be with Hinata-san. Temari-san was by here earlier and mentioned that he might still be in Hinata's room. You don't think…"

To Lee's question The old man snorted derisively "No, I'm sure that boy fell asleep, or got lost, or fell in a whole somewhere as he is wont to do". Jiraiya certainly didn't feel like doing anything himself after all he had to go through for his charges already in the past days. "We'll just wait it out. I'm sure he'll anger someone and it'll get blown way out of proportion. We can find him then".

Seeing as his new Sensei assume the posture of one who wished to get some sleep Lee did the only thing he could being confined to his bed. He reached down the side of his bed and pulled his newest journal out of the slightly bedraggled bag, and began searching for a pen in a spirited attempt to alleviate his boredom.

* * *

It wasn't until she heard the rather loud clearing of someone's throat that Hinata realized she had been dozing. Already in her previous sitting position she did her best to look presentable as the medic-nin Chiyo walked into her room followed by a much taller, and much younger woman with a very odd braided hairstyle and unbelievably pale skin.

Unexpectedly the younger woman spoke up first "Hiya there Hinata-chan, hope you slept well". The peculiar woman quickly looked around the room. "I don't see your boyfriend anywhere, did we miss him"

Hinata, her options being shocked silence or shocked babbling 'decided' to go with the latter. "Um, no he's not… no, umm Naruto's, he's not… well I mean…no-" That one innocent question scrambled her thoughts faster than any Genjutsu probably ever could.

"Relax girl your cheeks are redder than adowable wittle Gaawa-kun's hair right now. I was only kidding, only kidding. You might need a sedative if you don't calm down soon". The as of yet unnamed woman took a long moment to compose herself before continuing, smile still present in spite of herself "I'm actually here to evaluate you on what kind of training you'll be receiving since your such a special case". _If I don't steer the conversation away from the poor girl's source of near-death hysterics she might actually need a sedative._

**A/N: First. Be nice to my OC's, especially Narima. I can't get around needing them so there will be a few more here and there, expect more of him (no, he's not a ninja(OMG he's not a ninja? In Naruto...not a ninja!? Preposterous! Yeah I know)). Also theres a reason why Sasuke has to search for the 'usual' place. I didn't even bother re-checking this chapter so I could get it to you as soon as possible. There's probably more typos than normal (though I do my best not to have any). As I'm noticing a few small inconsistencies with my story I plan on renovation every chapter. So expect something from that sometime.**


	9. 09 New Bonds

**I don't own Naruto**

**A/N: First off, sorry about the lack of scene breaks in CH8. I messed up while fixing the chapter and accidentally forgot to put them back in, fixed now. Your feedback helps as this incident proves. It only makes me want some kind of forum even more, the more I hear from all of you the more I'd like to talk you all. I wanted to put a fight scene in this chapter but there were other things I wanted to cover so that'll have to wait till next time.**

Naruto starred long and hard at the fellow Jinkuurichi in an attempt to gauge the situation. Gaara had the same weird circles around his eyes, and that mop of unruly red hair still barely concealed the self inflicted 'Ai' tattoo on the boy's forehead. He was currently wearing the a buttoned up trench coat the color of red so dark it might have been mistaken for black if the light wasn't so good. Plain black pants completed the outfit along with the standard ninja sandals everyone wore. Naruto had only ever seen various forms of anger playing across Gaara's face so the placid expression that now presented itself was one more new thing he would probably have to get used to. From what Lee had told him Gaara had changed drastically from the murder-prone boy he had been at the last Chuunin exam, but one could never be too sure around-

"Uzumaki Naruto. It has been awhile. I am glad to see you are well". Gaara mouth barely moved as each word was slowly uttered, almost as if the boy was taking careful consideration into each word before he spoke.

Even with the friendly greeting Naruto did not relax fully until the hand of sand disengaged from his ankle and dissolved into the floor. He let out the breath he had been holding back in a grateful rush. _It's true what Lee said than, I really did do something to him back then_.

The formerly unapproachable boy took the final few steps that closed the gap between Naruto and himself, extending a hand slowly as he did. "The things you said the last time… I have thought about them everyday, and I want to thank you".

As Naruto was not one to dwell too much on past events if they didn't effect the present. He happily took Gaara's proffered hand in his own, pumping enthusiastically. "Not a problem I guess. Don't worry about before, water under the bridge, as long as we can be friends now!" He couldn't begin to fathom why, but for some reason he really wanted to help Gaara.

Gaara stared at their clasped hands, calm expression never slipping for a moment. "Friends… I never thought of that… after what I did…" the sand-nin looked back up into Naruto's embarrassed face.

Such sentimental moments always made the energetic boy feel like he had been put on the spot, a little bit awkward, but still not a bad feeling. "Well like I said it's all said and done. I guess it's true I was trying everything in my power to take you out at the time, but our situations are different now so we can get along now, right?" He sheepishly rubbed his hair in embarrassment with his free hand.

Much to Naruto's shock and surprise his former enemy managed a very slight, but definitely warm smile at his words. "I was in a very dark place then. I thought I would never be able to leave. I believed that killing was the only thing I needed. When you talked about how painful your past was I realized how similar we are. I wanted friends too, I wanted to have those same feelings that made you so strong".

Naruto's embarrassment fled right than and there. He released Gaara's hand to stuff both of his hands into his new jacket's pockets. "You really mean that? I didn't think I did all that much to tell the truth. It was just…" words began to fail him as he realized he couldn't really put what he wanted to say into words anymore. Instead he opted for a tried and true tactic. He leaned forward and gave his new friend an encouraging slap on the back "well I'm always happy to have more friends so welcome to the club" he gave the solemn boy his best smile. Sentimental moments were fine, but he still felt more comfortable in a light-hearted atmosphere.

Gaara, still recovering from the slap pursued the course for a few more moments. "Thank you again Naruto. Temari and Kankuro will be joining their new cells soon. It will be my first time away from my siblings in a long time. I felt…lost". He leaned against the sturdy wall, closing his eyes in remembrance.

Naruto was a little shocked at that bit of news. "I always got the impression you didn't get along with them very well" he decided to take up residence on the opposing wall from Gaara, stuffing his hands back into their homes.

"I treated them very badly before I met you. I felt any changes I wanted to make with myself had to start with them". Gaara's eyes opened back up, this time focusing on some people further down the corridor that had stopped to chat, rather obviously, about the former town terror talking with an incredibly flamboyantly dressed boy.

Narutoblivion prevailed as Gaara was the only one to notice the attention. "I notice your not wearing the weird sand-gourd-thing anymore" the first bit of small talk he had been allowed in awhile.

Gaara allowed another small smile to slip through at that "It's too bulky for everyday use. I can form one out of normal sand if I wish". With that admission Gaara outstretched his hand palm down, and a small swirl of sand began to form halfway between his hand and the floor. Sand was pulled from far ends of the corridor, the air, the walls, and even the ceiling. Within mere seconds A gourd that closely resembled his usual one was formed, his hand resting gently on top of the stopper.

Naruto's hands came out to offer a light applause, as if had been a magic trick at a show. "I never get used to all that sand manipulation stuff, I wish I could do something as cool as that". He stopped the applause when he realized his companion's expression had changed somehow.

Gaara's visage had indeed changed, a serious determination now pervaded his face as he held Naruto's gaze. "I would spar with you. Is that alright?"

Naruto was quite taken aback at this unexpected question. "Uh, you mean right now? Isn't there a sandstorm outside?"

"I have stopped it" came the simple reply.

_Oh great he can control entire sandstorms now_. "Are you sure that's alright, I mean we're in the middle of the village right? I was going to see Lee too, so…" Naruto couldn't deny he wanted to spar, yet many things conspired to make this a delicate decision.

"I was on my way to visit him as well. It will not take long, we can see him afterward… together".

Naruto was about to give in to the suggestion when he suddenly realized the decisions was already being made for him. A huge mass of sand appeared out of nowhere, and began to rapidly encircle both Gaara and him.

The gossipers farther down the corridor were taken aback when the objects of their discussion were suddenly swallowed up by a spinning sphere of sand. As suddenly as the two were enveloped the sphere flashed out of existence leaving them the only ones left in the hallway. They stared at each other in shock, not knowing in the least what had just happened.

* * *

After Sosha had properly introduced herself she had left the room to go find her new charge an acceptable change of clothes. The time spent waiting for her return was spent in silence as Hinata was too intimidated by the austere woman to try and spark up a conversation. Thankfully it wasn't very long before the overly jovial woman returned with a pile of purple and grey clothes neatly folded in her arms. After setting the clothes on the foot of the bed the two woman respected her privacy enough to leave the room to let her change into her new clothes. Hinata slid out of her bed carefully and placed her feet on the sandstone floor finding it surprisingly cool to the touch. Someone had seen fit to change her into a pair of white pajama pants while she had been unconscious apparently, a fact she didn't feel she would want to dwell on.

After unfolding the proffered clothes she realized this was a strange departure from what she normally wore. There was a long-sleeved lavender colored shirt with decidedly wider cuffs than the rest of the length of the arms. Accompanying that was a deep grey sleeveless over-shirt with a long neck that was meant to fold on itself to give a frilly appearance around the neck. For lower-body wear she was given a pair of thick black leggings, and a short grey skirt the same color as the top to cover her more sensitive areas. Hinata noticed that the two patches she had on her old jacket were now sewed onto both sides of the skirt. She smiled at that, glad that at least something survived of her old outfit. Her smile waned when she noticed the boots that had been left to her. If they even fit her at all they would be very snug against her leg, and would go up to at least mid-calf on her. Buckles dyed a darker purple than that of her under-shirt adorned the front of the boots, serving no purpose other than as a decoration from what she could tell. This was all such an extreme departure from what she was used to. Her jacket had allowed her to assume a more… unisexual appearance, and she wasn't so sure that this was going to be a change for the better. _It's so feminine… is this really alright for me to wear this as a ninja_?

Sosha and Chiyo waited an appropriate length of time before strolling back into the door-less room to check on the newest damage Sosha had wreaked on poor Hinata. The embarrassed girl turned to meet them as they walked in, prompting Sosha's grin to widen.

"See girl I knew you'd be able to pull that off". Sosha prided herself in many things, fashion on the fly just happened to be one of them.

"How did you find all this stuff that matches so well?" The embarrassed girl starred very hard at the outfit she now had situated on herself. A blush came to her face as she realized that her chest stuck out just a little too much for her liking. She tried very hard not to try and draw attention to her discomfort at the new discovery.

"Oh come on girl. I'm a woman, hello. I can find fashion anywhere with the most minimal effort" the outlandish statement came with it's own complimentary wink.

Hinata found it hard not to like the unorthodox woman. Sosha was at least twice her own meager age, yet if felt like she was being treated like a favorite little sister. _I… I really like this person, I think._

Any continuation of the conversation was cut short with a perturbed Chiyo clearing her throat. "If you two are done discussing empty-headed girly ballyhoo we have a task to perform".

Sosha, not one to loose the last word waved her had at Chiyo as if to swat away the offending statement. "personally I like the boots the best. I don't know why so many of our ninja wear sandals when boots keep the sand out so much better. It's a mystery".

The elderly woman put hand to forehead in frustration "I give up". She craned her head up to stare at Sosha reproachfully. "I'll be in the garden. When you're done-" at that point she gave a heavy sigh "-whenever that may be you can send her to the garden. The council has decided her medical training starts today".

Hinata became overwhelmed at that statement. She had no idea her training was going to begin so soon. She was about to ask a question to that affect when Chiyo's scratchy voice piqued up again.

As Chiyo was about to continue her statement the sandstorm outside abruptly stopped. The sound of wind was completely gone and the following silence was almost deafening because of it. The three looked at each other, but Sosha was the only to go any further with it. "That's pretty rare" and she shrugged. Just as quickly as the sandstorm itself had stopped so did the interest in the reason.

Chiyo waited a little longer before continuing "girl, that slug woman thinks very highly of your potential talents. I can only do my best to one up that snobby princess by bringing out that potential". Chiyo cast one last look over her shoulder as she began to exit the room. "Maybe you'll have me waiting long enough that I can pretty myself up too".

Sosha's face fell at such a horrifying thought.

"Just kidding! Gyahahahaaaa". was the last they heard from the old woman as she finally left, her laugh continuing as she walked the hallway.

"That was….just…wrong" Sosha did her best to fake a terminal case of disgust. After the moment had passed she turned back to her new charge, placing hands on the small girl's shoulders "At any rate you look quite the knock-out in that Hinata. I'm sure you're boy-uhhh… Naruto is going to like it".

Even Hinata could tell the slip of the tongue had been intentional. "Naruto's not…ummm…".

"No need to go over that again. I know, sorry. At any rate-" Sosha quickly flopped onto the edge of Hinata's bed, forcing the girl to turn around to continue facing her. "I am here to determine the course of your training. Your two companions already seem to have a good regimen planned for them, one way or the other so I'm here to find out exactly what you're good at". She held out her hands towards Hinata and beckoned with them as if she wanted her to come closer. "Give me your hands so we can determine just what that is exactly, right?"

Hinata, not sure exactly what to expect from the odd procedure gave up her hands freely for inspection. "What do I need to do?" came the timid question.

In response to the question Sosha gave a warm smile "Oh just keep your hands where they are. I have a very special Kekkei Genkai that allows me to simple touch another ninja and deduce what their strength and weaknesses are. I'm pretty sure it's a chakra thing, but no one was around long enough to tell me".

Hinata didn't miss the very personal admission she was just given about Sosha. The same smile pervaded the woman's face even as she spoke of some kind of implied childhood abandonment however, so Hinata decided not to pursue the matter. She didn't feel any kind of sensation as Sosha's contact with her hands lengthened, but suddenly the woman's eyes closed and she seemed to be concentrating so she left well enough alone.

"Hmmmm… well you've definitely got a strange bloodline there, I definitely can't help you with that however, sorry". There was a brief pause, as if she was waiting for something else. "Chiyo-baa-san was right about one thing, the potential for the healing arts is definitely there. Heck, it might just be stronger than your bloodline if this is any indication. That also doesn't help me much either, but there's still hope for something-" She broke off what she was going to say when she finally found what she was looking for. Her eyes opened up, and if it was even possible her smile widened further. "Well I knew there was a reason why I liked you girl. It seems to me like we'll be spending some time together you and I.

Sosha seemed very excited by whatever it was she had found and Hinata herself found it to be slightly contagious. "What did you see?" she couldn't contain her own slight sense of excitement at whatever it could be.

The almost-too-happy woman stood up and embraced Hinata briefly. "Ever since I was little I was considered one of the best in the village when it came to Suiton techniques and it looks like you've just volunteered yourself to be my first pupil. Isn't that just the coolest? You can be like my little sister or something right?"

Hinata hadn't been expecting something of that magnitude._ Me? I have a talent for Suiton?_ When Sosha began bouncing up and down in excitement she found herself being caught up in the bizarre dance. _Healing _and_ Suiton Jutsus? I could never in my wildest dreams have imagined so many good things happening to me at once. I can't wait till I tell Naruto about this!_

After a prolonged bout of bouncing and laughing Sosha finally managed to calm herself down…somewhat. "Well, we should probably go find Chiyo right? If I'm to start your training with Suiton we're going to have to find a way to compromise with her. I guess we're going to have to find some way to integrate you're Hyuuga training too right? Man, just wait until your friends hear about this!"

Hinata, still not entirely used to her newest Sensei's incredibly high blood sugar level was simply pulled along out of the room, leaving her things behind. _The way this is going I might just gain another Sensei before the day is out._

It was a good thing for the aforementioned Sensei that she was a usually hyper woman. If there was something bothering her she could easily mask it with more hyperactivity and smiles. She didn't think it was prudent to bring up her other discovery to the girl. There was something sleeping inside the Hinata's chakra. Whatever it was, it was definitely too small to analyze at the time. Because it felt so out of place and was so different from anything else she had ever experienced she made the mental note to check up on it later, and to ask Chiyo, her own former Sensei, if she might know of anything that could have happened to her 'little sister'.

* * *

Kiba had no idea why he had to be in this particular restaurant every single day. Whatever it was Ino insisted that they come here everyday at almost exactly the same time and order the same needlessly complicated dishes. "What is it that Shikamaru's always saying?" He was barely keeping his head above the table even with both fists helping it maintain the slouch.

Ino, back to wearing her purple two-piece with accompanying bandages shot him an angry look "do you mean 'troublesome'?"

Kiba gave her an insolent smile "Yeah that's it. That definitely fits our situation pretty well doesn't it?" The boy sitting across from her was just as weird as all the other boys she had grown up with… except Sasuke. He at least wasn't wearing that ridiculous hoodie with all that tacky fur today. She had to wonder if there might have somehow been, god forbid, a dog in his ancestry somewhere because there was no way he could look so dog-like without some kind of tampering. To her eternal chagrin Kiba never combed his unruly brown hair and those weird red triangles under his eyes didn't help him win any style points with her either. The only thing normal about him was the black shirt with a red bone emblazoned on the front, she would swear that his gray pants were regularly chewed on by dogs. "Do we really have to get that weird guy from the sand as our third member? I don't remember him exactly being the nicest of guys".

"Well at least we get Shizune-san as our Sensei. I heard we were supposed to get some batty friend of the Hokage's". Ino speared a piece of steak that had just finished cooking and daintily placed it in her mouth for consumption.

Kiba lifted his head off the table, a destination it had just finally managed to reach and leaned back in his seat. "I just hope _something_ happens soon. I'm sure all the other cell's are doing all kinds of exciting things by now while all we can do is just sit here and wait for the rest of our cell to discover our bones".

Ino speared another piece of meat from the fryer "You're hopeless".

* * *

Lee continued to scribble in his journal even as the snores of his Sensei threatened to liquefy his eardrums. _Jiraiya-Sensei is still sleeping….wonder when Naruto-kun or Hinata-san will come visit… wonder when I'm going to get some screen time._

Jiraiya's incessant snores were interrupted just briefly enough to get in a sleepily muttered "hey baby-" _snore_ "-why do I have-" _snore _"-to paaaaayyy" _snooooooore._

_Gai-Sensei, will I ever get the training I want_. A tear came to Lee's eye as he passionately hoped for a better tomorrow.

**A/N: Jiraiya's comment is about a bar tab, not a hooker BTW. There will be no NarutoxGaara so don't look to deep into their conversation. I also want to say I have a host of really good Ideas I plan on using with Hinata's combined water/healing/bloodline techniques. There were some parts of this I felt were slightly rushed so when I do my revisions I'll try and fix them. Also, expect one of the other cells to get a focus next chapter (I haven't even thought of other combinations so if anyone has a suggestion I'd be glad to hear it) It's probably mostly going to be the Naruto/Gaara fight, Hinata going to the garden, and Lee and Jiraiya wondering when they'll see more 'screen time'**


	10. 10 Shatter

**I don't own Naruto**

**A/N: As a first note I'm going to say that all of Gaara's various sand attacks will be referred to by the generalization 'sand weapons'. I'm not too sure about this chapter, I'm trying to reach a goal of seven chapters in seven days so I'll look over it later.**

Just as quickly as he had been sucked up into the sand-style Shunshin Naruto was released from it. Whereas he had been in the confines of an underground corridor before, he now found himself in a location with very different scenery than what the former locale could boast. The terminally off-guard boy was bewildered to find himself on top of a very tall spire off to one side of the villages center somewhere. He almost didn't have enough secure footing space, it took all he had not to jump in surprise at his new fortune, lest he fall like a wet bag of ramen noodles. Knowing that the danger he was in to be quite real Naruto's instincts almost instantly kicked in. He couldn't sense any chakra being molded nor could he see any sand weapons forming. The only thing he apparently had to contend with was the rather strong wind that kept a constant stream of cool air battering his small frame. It would be quite the experience if it wasn't for the constant threat of bodily harm.

"Gaara, you know to take it easy right?" the blond boy called out into the air currents, hands cupped around his mouth. "Gaara?"

Like some kind of creeping predator the approaching sand tendrils were felt more by a tuned sense of violent intent rather than the chakra that propelled them. Naruto's legs had just enough time to bunch his remarkably strong leg muscles and fire himself off the top of the spire before three thick snake-like sand weapons reached their shared conclusion. Where he had been standing only fractions of a second ago was now an erupting cloud of sand and rock as the tendril's end signified a massive kinetic force of sand and raw power ripping apart a fair portion of the spire's top.

Luckily for him the worst of the aftermath only constituted a grazing by a fist-sized sandstone chunk, and even that did not deter him from the cross-fingered seal he was already performing. Before any other major event could transpire a loud yell of "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" rung out, followed by a massive explosion of thick smoke, filling the airspace of Sunagakure. Dozens upon dozens of perfectly replicated clones facing in every direction replaced the dissipated cloud of smoke in an instant. _Before he can strike again I have to find where he's hiding._

"Come out, come out wherever you are!" one of the clones called out from near the cloud's bottom. Before the words had even finished leaving the mouth a brown blur whizzed up from one of the building's roofs and destroyed the clone. A furious whine accompanied the projectile as it nearly achieved Mach 1. It's screaming path took one more clone in a violent instant before it disappeared into the sky. _Damn! That's way too fast_. The real Naruto was actually near the very top of the cloud, yet still felt no more secure.

The laws of gravity took that moment to make their decision to take the lives of every Naruto in it's hands. To the curious observer it would seem that there was no effort wasted in any real attempt to save themselves from certain destruction. The original was putting all his hopes in what he expected to happen next, now was the time to start making the first move, but he needed to fool Gaara one more time before he felt he would get his chance.

"Sabaku Kyuu!" rung out from somewhere among the canyon-like rooftops as Gaara's next attack had already begun.

Too Naruto it seemed that every grain of sand in Sunagakure was now allied against him as hundred's of tendrils far bigger than the previous ones homed in on him and his clones. It took a great deal of control not to panic as the gap was very quickly filled between him and the sand weapons. _Right now! _Just as the sand tendrils lanced through the first round of clonesthree of the Narutos began moving. The tendrils were everywhere so it wasn't hard to choose one to attach themselves to. Those few instants saw the multitude of clones gone with little resistance, but the three had gotten their opening. Concentrating the necessary chakra in their feet all three of the Naruto's took off running down the length of the sand column of their choice.

The tendrils were slow in responding to the unexpected maneuver and that gave the Narutos the edge they needed. Through shear luck each Naruto had managed to pick a tendril that led to a distant part of the 'battle field' giving him the greatest opportunity to find their master. Other tendrils immediately began smashing into the ones the Narutos were on, themselves curling down to try and constrict their prey. Each Naruto escaped destruction more than once under these conditions as they sped down the lengths of sand. Finally, as if the tendrils were frustrated, two of the three dissolved from underneath the clones feet and reformed just as quickly around their legs, ensuring their capture. They wasted no time in squeezing the two Narutos, but it was as if they were simply attempting to hold them instead of delivering a crushing death. If either one of the Narutos had been the original than they would be thankful for this kindness, as it stood neither one was real and the pressure caused both clones to burst into small puffs of smoke.

Naruto had finally spotted where Gaara had been hiding thus didn't see the need to keep the clones alive anyways. 'Spotted' was a relative term as Gaara was actually quite invisible to the naked eye, but Naruto knew what to look for. Roughly one-hundred yards further out he spotted, with great difficulty, a small white eye made of sand floating in the air above a particularly wide roofed building. He didn't need his own 'third eye' to tell that all of Gaara's sand weapons were bearing down on him, ensuring his defeat if he didn't do something soon. When he felt his own footpath start to dissolve Naruto did the first thing that came to mind.

Leaping off the tendril in the eye's general direction Naruto crossed his fingers for the second time "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" He didn't need to conceal his position this time so there was no burst of smoke following the cry, instead a line of Naruto clones silently shifted into existence in a relatively straight line to the eye. He was pretty much on top of roofs at this point but there was a huge gap between the building he was over and the large building Gaara had to be on. Still in the apex of his leap he allowed his momentum to carry him into the first clone. Naruto's feet hit the clone's shoulders so hard he was afraid it would dispel from under him.

_Thank god for small miracles._ He leapt off the clone's shoulders on a course for the next mid-air clone, leaving the old one to it's horrible fate. Almost colliding straight into the clone Naruto reacted by grabbing at it's head. He gave momentum enough time to roll them forward enough that he could push off with his hands and sail towards the next clone. Orienting himself better this time Naruto landed with one foot on the newest clone's back before kicking of again. Apparently the clone had a good view of what was behind him because Naruto heard it scream "Aaaaaah, it's a wall of sand!" just before he reached the last clone. Being of a curious sort Naruto thought he had enough time to get a quick look back to see what the clone was talking about before he reached his destination. He _did_ see that there was now a unified front of sand crashing toward him in a good mockup of a wave. He _did_ wonder to himself why he couldn't find it funny that was a wave of sand hundreds of feet above the ground. He _did not _have enough time to get his bearing back before he crashed into the last clone. The two sailed into the wall, the clone taking the brunt of the damage in place of the original. The clones had been given orders to specifically protect the life of the original this time, and Naruto could thank the flexibility of the command-type Jutsu rather than his own near mastery of it. The last clone, sand from the wall already constricting around it, had the presence of mind to brace the original's feet with it's own hands and springboard Naruto upward. If Naruto had in fact hit the wall than he probably wouldn't have enough of his wits left to perform the final part in his plan.

As the wall of sand crashed into the side of the building it immediately began moving upward in an attempt to catch up to the pursued boy. Naruto almost didn't make it to the top of the wall, throwing out his hand to catch the lip and help the remaining momentum he had to carry him up and over onto the roof. His one hand still being preoccupied with steadying himself after his landing he whipped his remaining hand at the oval shaped sand shield in the center of the roof. Three kunai sped towards the shield, Naruto's last resort. Actually seeing that he had managed to find Gaara Naruto hastily revised his plan. In the instant that the kunai had left his hand he was already getting to his feet and beginning to perform another Kage Bunshin.

Gaara could see the incoming kunai as plain as day with his sand eye, but couldn't come up with a reason his sparring partner would use such a weak attack. By simply focusing his thoughts into mental commands his sand shield morphed into a perfect likeness of himself, swatting away the offending weapons into lazy spins through the air. _I've fallen prey to his unpredictable nature before…_ Gaara was not convinced that this particular thought could be this straightforward.

Naruto was already at a run and performing the Bunshin seal when he saw the kunai ejected from their perfect flight paths. "Hah! You fell for it" he exulted, his plan coming together better than he could have hoped. Naruto was not the best when it came to mental concentration, so summoning his newest host of shadow clones and releasing the Henge at the same time was a strain on him. As two clones appeared on either side of him, keeping pace, the three kunai he had thrown suddenly transformed into three more clones. Unlike his previously summoned help these clones had weapons of their own to use. Gripped in each hand was an exploding-tag kunai of the same design he had used in their previous battle. The tags were already lit, very close to the point of explosion.

To compound the Gaara's worsening situation the clones that were taking up flanking positions on his sides started thrusting their palms at Naruto's outstretched hands. He couldn't tell what it was that was forming in both of the leaf Gennin's hands but the sand Gennin had more pressing problems, the tags. Thankfully he still had his gourd at the ready. Bringing an arm in front of him in a guarding stance his gourd complied by breaking up into three new shields, taking up positions between him and each of the threatening clones. The gap between him and the real Naruto was now greatly shortened, that was the extent of the attention that he was able to pay, he might have noticed the very dangerous orbs of chakra now fully formed in the boy's hands. The difficult decision of where exactly to direct his attention was taken away from when the explosive tag kunai were finally brought against him. Each kunai directly impacted the centers of all three of his erected shields. The explosions were so great that his shields disintegrated upon impact, the area of the roof directly beneath the shield cracked under the pressure of the blast. His three shields lost and his balance disturbed Gaara could take only small consolation in the fact that the clone's proximity to their own explosions brought about their own downfall. His unbalanced forced him a few steps back, and was probably what saved him from the next attack, as his control on his Suna Bunshin had already begun slipping.

Naruto reached Gaara's position just as the explosions caused by his clones were dissipating. He stopped just short of the clone, bracing himself with both feet for his next attack. He brought his right arm up first, cocking it back before savagely thrusting it into the clone accompanied by "Rasengan!". He knew the power of his ultimate Jutsu well, but he was also familiar with the strength of Gaara's sand techniques, so the ease in which his Rasengan punctured and ripped apart the clone threw him off balance. He tried to bring the second Rasengan to bear but Gaara had managed to get enough control back over the scattered patches of sand around them to throw up bubble of sand around Naruto's proffered arm. Before he could disengage the spiraling chakra the sand around his hand crushed against the Jutsu immediately causing it to detonate prematurely.

Gaara had done the first thing that came to mind when he saw that second sphere of destruction, that Rasengan, too close for comfort. His clone had been annihilated in every sense of the word, if he had let that hit him there were no guarantees that he would have been able to survive. _Naruto doesn't know that my sand armor is gone_. Unfortunately he had been too preoccupied with his own safety to consider his newest friend's. The sand he had hastily thrown up in defense had unfortunately wrapped tightly around Naruto's arm. The strange Jutsu exploded inside it's confine of sand.

Naruto was flung violently backward from his assault. His shoulders hit the ground first, he hit some kind of obstruction as he skidded along the roof and flipped over onto his knees. He managed to stop his mad skid just short of what used to be the wave-turned-wall of sand. The pain in his arm kept him from any kind of bemused wonderings as to why there wasn't a descending wave of sand all around him. Despite the pain of his shattered arm he could already feel the Kyuubi's influence in his body numb the pain. He had gotten so used to it by now that he wondered if his arm would even bear a scratch within the hour.

Naruto stood, teeth gritting at the pain despite whatever the demon fox was doing for him. Unfortunately for the boy he was not so self-aware to realize what was happening. Under normal circumstances he would never consider using this tactic in something as small as a training match, but he couldn't even rationally distinguish the situation he was in. _Kyuubi… lend me your strength, just a little bit. _There was no response from what ever part of him housed the monstrous chakra beast so he redoubled his efforts. As the last of his reason left him he held a brief thought as to why he no longer had the 'audiences' with the demon fox anymore, as if something had changed, but even that thought was swept away. _Damnable fox answer me! Give me your power right now!_ Almost immediately he felt the dangerous chakra start leaking out from the curse seal on his stomach. He was about to yell at the fox again when very suddenly the orange chakra surged forward, enveloping his entire body in an instant. The whiskers on his face expanded like some kind of spreading disease, and his formerly crystal-blue eyes collapsed into swirling pools of red bisected by a horizontal slit more comfortable on a predatory beast than boy, the lucidity of rational thought no longer present in these eyes.

Gaara could both feel and see what was going on. In the intervening months since the last time Shukaku had managed to take control of him Gaara had put forth every effort to quell the beast within. He had assumed that Naruto was making the same efforts to keep his own beast shut away, but he was very wrong. For the first time in his life Gaara raised his voice. "Naruto! Stop what you're doing before it's too late!" his voice sounded strange to him in this fashion but it was the furthest thing from his mind at the moment.

In fact it was too late, with out a word Naruto's fist came up, and than crashing back down into the ground. At first Gaara thought Naruto was trying to destroy the entire roof, but he saw that the impact hole was no smaller than the boy's fist. Gaara's perplexed expression quickly became replaced by something between shock and fear as he realized all too late what was happening. Before his sand could even start to stir in an effort to defend him a hand of pure, bubbling red chakra rocketed out of the ground directly in front of his feet. The clawed hand crushed against his throat in a horrible vice-like grip quicker than it took him to blink. _Fast!_

Naruto's shape shifting chakra arm yanked Gaara towards him at the same time ripping up the ground as more and more of the contracting chakra returned to him. At the speed in which the demon-tranced boy reeled in his prey Gaara's sand could barely keep up. The distance that had been separating the two was not great to begin with, yet Gaara tried to coax a little more speed out of his sand to stop the next attack. The sand that was following Gaara sped just ahead of it's master to intercept Naruto's free arm, already clenched in a tight fist. Not willing to repeat his last mistake Naruto drew his arm out of reach of the grabbing sand, changing the momentum of Gaara in the process. Gaara's neck was released just in time to send him hurtling past Naruto and at his wall of sand. He just barely managed to twist his body into aligning feet first as he plowed through the sand wall, and popped out the other end of the wall on a thick, circular disk of sand, his own Sabaku Fuyu, that hovered mid-air. His hand came up to his bruised neck in a rushed attempt to check for any permanent damage. Keeping his hand in a reassuring position around his neck his free one came up as he focused all his remaining power into the wall of sand between him and the tranced Naruto. Luckily for him Naruto had not moved an inch since the initial attack. With grim determination he set himself to the task.

_Naruto, why is all this necessary. Why must these demons keep rearing their heads and destroying our precious lives._ "This is my fault Naruto" he rubbed his neck involuntarily, pain coming every time he breathed "I'm sorry, but I must stop you now".

Shakily, his hand came away from his neck and he extended it out to match the other. "Desert Cannon!" with that cry of finality Gaara concentrated everything he had into the sand wall. A circular area of sand directly in front of Naruto began to undulate wildly before it erupted forth in a cylindrical stream. Sensing the attack, Naruto's demonic chakra attempted to intercept it, but the shear power of the steady stream of sand knocked aside the pressure wave and continued it's course unfazed. The only thing that saved Naruto from having his skin sandblasted off his body was the remarkably resilient chakra that served as his personal armor. The entire wall of sand was quickly funneling into the cannon's stream, at the rate it was going even it's massive size would disappear in under a minute.

Naruto was enduring the assault by some means that Gaara couldn't fathom. He had expected the power of his newest Jutsu to be enough to know out the Kyuubi, yet he was being proven wrong every second that Naruto-Kyuubi managed to withstand the withering assault. The only thing he could see that he had going for him was that at the very least his Desert Cannon was forcing Naruto back. Gaara kept pressing his advantage until he realized that the remaining sand in the wall was not going to put Naruto down. As he saw it there were only two more options left. One of them was unthinkable, the entire village could be destroyed if both demons came out at once. His second option was not much better insofar that it would be incredibly hard not to kill Naruto. _I have… no choice…forgive me._

Gaara mentally queued the last of the sand into the cannon, freeing his hands for his final attempt at ending this with minimal damage. He brought his right hand up to his mouth, pausing only momentarily hoping something else would come to him or Naruto might regain his senses, he waited, and finally continued. He bit down on his thumb, drawing enough blood to perform his Kichiyose Jutsu. The seals came quickly to him and upon finishing the Jutsu stretched out his right hand again.

"Kichiyose no Jutsu" he solemnly intoned, and a large gourd was summoned into existence. Having been painstakingly collected from sources as ancient as the planet itself each grain was a marvel of geological beauty. Four different pure strains made up this special gourd, the colors ranged from an obsidian black, to chocolate, to a lustrous tan, and finally to snow white.

Hopefully he had bought himself enough time with the remainder of the Desert Cannon to shape his new gourd's sands. Being of ancient and incredibly dense constructing he had to take a noticeably longer time in shaping this sand than he would his usual fare. Knowing that time was almost up he compromised by commanding his Sabaku Fuyu into a direct course towards Naruto. His gourd was still forming as he closed the gap, and unfortunately the cannon's last bit of sand was all used up. In an attempt to buy himself a little more time he jumped clear of his platform, in effect turning it into a battering ram. Just as Naruto shook off the last of the sand stream the platform collided with his midsection.

Gaara hit the ground in a skid, concentrating some chakra into his feet to stabilize himself as his momentum kept him closing in on Naruto. Gaara's makeshift ram only served him a total of a few seconds it turned out, Naruto-Kyuubi's arms encircled the platform, squeezed, and popped it like a soap bubble. As the platform dissolved the sand ninja could see that his last Jutsu had indeed had some effect. Naruto was completely shirtless, his entire upper body completely bare save for a curious necklace. Whatever damage the Desert Cannon had done to Naruto's body must have been healed in an instant, a truly terrifying thought.

Gaara could feel the finalization of the transformation process take shape, he twisted his back trying to gain as much swinging room as possible for what would be, either way, the final attack.

Naruto's arm snapped up in a last desperate attempt to forestall this meeting. The chakra in his arm seemed to peel off in numerous blood-red shards as they flew towards Gaara.

As Gaara's arms cocked back as far as they would go his weapon finished it's metamorphosis into a massive headed hammer. The four separate types of rock grain in the gourd had swirled together, enhancing their strength exponentially with the union, and now resembled a long handled hammer with a head nearly as tall as a man and twice as wide. The chakra shurikens raked across various spots on his body, creating an alarming amount of superficial cuts, he was if nothing else surprised to find that there was no pain that usually signaled a critical hit. Undaunted, he swung the massive hammer square at Naruto. There was no last minute trick or miraculous save that got in the way of Gaara's attack as it connected squarely with the mass of evil chakra mid-swing.

* * *

Lee sat cross-legged on top of his hospital bed, deep in thought at a card game one of the nurses had been kind enough to teach him, Scorpion was what she had called it. Chiyo had been in just a short while ago to check on his progress. Having declared that he would be hale and hearty by tomorrow she had left, albeit mumbling about some kind of slow poison for 'snoring gorillas'. After she had left Lee went back to his solitary game, for once deciding it was a good idea _not_ to go out somewhere for some impromptu training. As far as he could tell he had either missed one of the rules or it was just simply his destiny to never win a game. At least those weird vibrations that rattled the room periodically had stopped. 

Card games were fine, but you could only here an old man snore for so long before you wondered if your sanity was slipping. Maybe that had been what all those vibrations were, insanity. For about the two-hundredth time he wished Naruto or Gaara would finally come visit him. _I'm so lonely oh so lonely_-

As if there was a sadistic author in his life that had a thing for morbid irony the southern wall of his hospital room chose that moment to explode. The sound of disintegrating stone and shattering glass was so loud that even Lee's thoughts were silenced . Very suddenly many things were happening at once. Jiraiya shot out of his fast enough to put lightning to shame, Lee's cards when flying, a figure crashed into the north wall with a splintering crack, and the room suddenly had a much bigger window.

Jiraiya, accustomed to a life of danger, was able to assess the situation he found himself in rather quickly. Something had destroyed the one wall in the room that shouldn't have been so easily accessible, Lee was in a guarding position, and a chakra-inscrolled form was tightly wedged into the opposite wall.

For a brief moment the unfortunate person was wrapped in a red colored aura, but quickly disappeared like smoke in the wind. Lee might have been able to chalk it whatever it was up to being a trick being played on his eyes. Jiraiya however, knew exactly what he had seen. In an instant he was at the unconscious Naruto's side. Whatever had happened had left ugly bruises all over the boy's face and chest, and most likely, his legs as well. _Bruises, probably a broken rib or two, maybe his collarbone… it looks like an entire mountain hit him._ Convinced that there was no immediate danger to Naruto Jiraiya left his side and dashed to the extra large window. Just as he reached the gapping whole to check for signs of an enemy a strange looking boy with red hair dropped out of the sky onto the 'window sill', a hand shooting out to catch himself with a steadying hand on the 'frame'.

Jiraiya's hand jerked towards a kunai out of reflex before he could stop himself. Whoever this boy was he didn't seem to be a threat. The worried expression plastered on his face and complete lack of any hostile intent informed Jiraiya's instincts they could relax. Putting hand to head the old man let out a heavy sigh.

_I'm getting too old. If that had really been an Akatsuki attack I wouldn't have been able to do anything._ Instead of dwelling on his shortcomings Jiraiya turned away from Gaara and walked out into the hall. Just as he peeked his head out into the hallway a pretty nurse almost collided with him. One part of him wanted to ogle, but thankfully two parts wanted to help Naruto, democracy in action. "Ah yes Nurse, could you get Chiyo-san for me. Just tell her that one of the Konoha Gennin needs her help. Thank you". He retreated back into the room without waiting for the reply. Lee, despite his recovering injury had already picked up Naruto from his snug position in the wall and was beginning to lay him on the bed when Jiraiya looked back. Deciding that Lee had _that_ well in hand Jiraiya decided to approach the mysterious boy. "Just tell me what happened before we have an army of Suna officials breathing down our backs".

As Jiraiya listened to what the soft spoken sand-nin had to say his mind drifted to the real problem with all this._ By the time the boy wakes up he'll probably only have a mild concussion, all thanks to the Kyuubi. I can pretend to be carefree about this but the fact remains that for whatever reason Naruto released the Kyuubi._ Jiraiya spared a glance at the unconscious boy. Lee had at least managed to make Naruto look as if he was just sleeping, so if Naruto could pull off looking that relaxed after what had just happened he really didn't need to worry. _What could possibly have happened to have caused this._

**A/N: Please don't bother pointing out this is the second time Naruto's relied on the Kyuubi(three if you count Sasuke...no four, it was sort of there during the Kimimaro fight if I remember right), I know what I'm doing so let's leave it at that . I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you don't always have to say the name of the Jutsu to complete it, that's why when Naruto was on the roof he didn't say 'Kage Bunshin no Jutsu'. The sand gourd Gaara summons is something along the lines of what he used against Kimimaro, but stronger. I feel this was too rushed, and I really wanted to change the hospital part.**


	11. 11 Nascence

**I don't own Naruto**

**A/N:Come on people, review review review. Make me stronger (and more motivated) with your reviews.**

The gardens of Sunagakure were of such a high quality and unexpected scope that they could easily rival anything that Konoha or Ame could boast. Plants and trees from all corners of the known world had a place somewhere within the walls of the sprawling complex. Situated above the massive, main hospital building, the gardens had the best location in all the village to soak up the necessary amount of sun to fertilize the plants. Many different rooms existed with many different specifically monitored climates all in the same complex in harmony. Whether it was a poisonous plant or a curing her, or just a pretty flower in most likely could be found in some form .

Hinata had just arrived in the gardens where she was to meet Chiyo when a nondescript sand ninja burst through one of the complex's many doors in a breathless rush. "Is Chiyo-obaa-sama present?" came the hurried question.

The Hyuuga girl had to wonder just how busy her elderly Sensei had to always be with people needing her for so many different things. Little did Hinata know that in actuality the 'better half' of the siblings was rarely ever bothered anymore, that her troubles had begun the second the Godaime Hokage had made the training request.

Both she and Sosha jumped when the diminutive woman popped up from behind a row of potted plants not but a few feet from where they stood. "Why can't you all just pretend like I died of old age for a day? Gyahaaha!" Hinata thought that there might be something unbalanced about the old lady.

The ninja was apparently used to such bizarre speech and continued on "The Sannin Jiraiya has requested your urgent presence at the hospital". His composure was much better for the report's second round, and his breath had caught up with him.

Hinata's attention was instantly rapt "Lee-san? Did something happen to Lee-san?"

The messenger cast a quick glance at the girl who interrupted his message, and immediately did a double-take "You must be Hinata-san. Your presence has been requested as well". He completely ignored her question.

Chiyo gave a heavy sigh as she preceded to follow the messenger who was even now turning to exit the complex. Hinata and Sosha gave each other sidelong glances before hurrying to fall in with Chiyo.

"Ummmm… excuse me but is there something wrong with one of the leaf ninja?" Hinata put more force into her question, and even made the question a little more general this time around in an attempt to finally get her question answered._ All the bad things happening always seem to outweigh the good._

The messenger unaltered his brisk pace that taking them down the first flight of stairs even when he bothered looking back to answer her question. "Naruto-san has been injured in an 'altercation' with one of our sand ninja, one Sabaku no Gaara. Advisor Baki is on his way to mediate the situation with Jiraiya right now".

The contents of the clinical reply silenced anything else Hinata was going to say and her thoughts turned immediately to Naruto and his unknown fate._ What could have happened. It doesn't seem like anything really bad happened or we'd be running right?_ Hinata paused for a second, unsure as to why her self-appointed big sister's speech mannerisms were already affecting her. _He only said injured right?… Stop that! He would have said wounded or…_ failing to come up with a word worse than wounded at the moment her thoughts veered off path in frustration. _I mean, why is it that _he's_ the one that gets injured while we're in the safe village? I can't imagine what could have possibly happened._ Her position as a professional Naruto watcher afforded her many chances to watch his unsolicited behavior in action, but she had yet to fully grasped what it meant for him to be referred to as the world's number one most unpredictable ninja.

Sosha leaned in closer to her student whispering "man, you guys really know how to get out of training huh?" in a failed attempt to alleviate the tension that played across Hinata's face. The worried girl herself continued walking behind the messenger at the now too-slow pace. The only thing keeping her from running ahead was from a lack of knowing where exactly they were going.

* * *

As a true testament to Naruto's heightened resilience, he had only been out cold for a handful of minutes before he began to regain consciousness. After a few more minutes of incomprehensible grumbling and whining about the pain in his chest he had regained full control of his facilities again. As he was getting his wits back Jiraiya had run interference with the various nurses and other hospital staff that were trying to muscle there way into the disaster zone. Eventually an odd looking man with bandages wrapped all over his face, declaring he had been sent by the advisory council, arrived and the matter was neatly taken out of the Sannin's hands. Jiraiya didn't miss the unreadable look that passed over the Jounin's face as he bore witness to Gaara's presence in the destroyed hospital room.

After a quick introduction on his part as being a general mediator in all affairs Sunagakure by the name of Baki he had begun to take charge of the situation. After learning there were no injuries that would require medical intervention Baki ordered them all to follow him to a more suitable location. Baki lead the four down a few twisting hallways, hospital staff and patients alike chatting quietly about what the procession could be all about. Through some means that no one saw Naruto had procured himself a clean whit T-shirt from somewhere along the way. Lee himself only needed to reach out a steadying hand against a nearby wall a few times as his balance would suddenly become unruly as they walked.

When they finally reached their destination, a sparsely furnished office containing only a plush couch, mahogany desk, a few lamps and chairs, and a rather large portrait of an imposing man that looked oddly like an older version of Gaara.

"This is the hospital manager's office. It's the closest room to serve our purposes, and I'd rather not worsen the, apparently, rapidly deteriorating condition of our guests with any straining exercise" Baki's dour tone made it hard to discern any intended insult out of the statement. The only one to rise to the jibe was Gaara, and only then did he frown. Glancing Gaara's way only briefly Baki continued unabated "We have need to discuss certain things concerning your stay here, but first we must discuss the most recent problem".

Naruto wasted no time in flopping down on the couch, an act which elicited an involuntary wince of pain from him, even he couldn't recover as fast as he would have liked. Lee joined Naruto on the couch while their Sensei took up position right behind the couch. Gaara remained near the door, about as far as he could get from Baki as and not be violating the room's boundaries. The Advisor himself walked to the far side of the room, taking his seat behind the sparse desk.

"There is a big hole in the wall of this hospital and our own Gaara is involved somehow. Another curious thing to note is that the whole just happens to be in the room of another leaf Gennin. You must forgive me if these two points don't seem like they _wouldn't_ call the attention of the council down on this situation. Humor me by giving me the short version of this event so we can continue on with the other matters that are at hand". Once again Baki didn't seem to be projecting any hostility, but his lack of concern for the damages done to the hospital itself definitely had Jiraiya's interest piqued.

Seeing that Naruto was struggling with what exactly he should say Gaara spoke up first. "I met Naruto in one of the underground hallways when he was on his way here. I asked him to spar with me, and he accepted. We went to the roof of the building adjacent to this one and started our spar. During the fight I lost control of and accidentally destroyed the wall of the hospital wall".

Naruto was a little confused at Gaara's skewed retelling of the events, but caught on quickly "Yeah, sorry about that.

Knowing full well that this abridged account of the accident was not what really happened Baki decided to let it slide "Very well, but the fact remains that you engaged in an aggravated fight within the limits of the village".

Gaara leaned away from the wall, a frown creasing his face "I'll take responsibility for the hospital, but that roof is a part of the Kazekage's mansion. For whatever reason I inherited that mansion, so I can do whatever I want in those boundaries".

Baki starred at Gaara for a long moment before deciding the matter wasn't really up to him anyway, and decided to drop the subject entirely. "As you wish… moving on, the matter of your training mission is the real reason why I'm here. You arrived here a few days earlier than expected so we can overlook the disorganized manner in which you're going about your training. Admittedly part of the blame lies with us as our council members are a little tied up with affairs of the state since the death of our Kazekage. Our organizational structure is in a temporary limbo as we debate on who our new Kage will be. Another valid point is that you arrived in our village under special circumstances and it has taken awhile for us to get accustomed to the way your team seems to exit _and _enter our care. There were two handlers that were assigned to your cell for the duration of the mission however one of them has disappeared for the moment with the third leaf Gennin, one of our own Jounin, and the other, a Leaf representative, has been recently detained for unpaid bar tabs. That is the point of this meeting, however. Now that the situation has stabilized somewhat we are prepared to set the schedules in which you will be training under. Understandably this is your mission so we will allow you to make up the schedules themselves, within reason. We will review each new schedule and give it our approval if it meshes with our own timetables. If there is something you request of us, a Jounin you which to train under or any tools you require for your own training you can run it by either of your handlers. Your Hokage has set it up to where you can choose where you would like your residence to be, whether that be one of our dorms or the hospital itself, which is a good idea because you seem to have taking a liking to it already. You've been given a week to adjust to your routine here in Sunagakure, so hopefully incidents like this will not be necessary again-"

The advisory council member's lengthy speech was interrupted by a nondescript sand-nin barging into the office. Trailing behind him was the elderly medic-nin Chiyo, and their missing cell member Hinata. They were accompanied by someone none of the leaf-nin had ever seen before.

Naruto's attention immediately focused on Hinata. Her new outfit came as something of a shock to him. Always having seen her in that frumpy jacket he couldn't really have pictured her in something so feminine before now. Her hair also surprised him, since he had last seen her, only hours before, it had undergone a slight revision. The hair in question had been getting too long to keep it in her old fashion so it had been pulled back, leaving it in a small ponytail, barely more than a rat's tail. The combination almost left her in a state that could be considered unrecognizable to even her closest companions. Naruto liked the new look, he wasn't entirely sure why, but it was definitely an improvement over her old 'style'. "Wow Hinata, you almost look as good as Sakura-chan!" he gave her his standard idiot grin at what he hoped would be accepted as a compliment.

Even the mention of Sakura couldn't deter Hinata from receiving the compliment as one of the best sounds her ears had ever heard. Whatever danger Naruto might have been in must have been exaggerated if he could sit around and smile. She didn't even realize how tight her chest felt until her ardent relief washed it away. Her blush on the other hand was immediate and uncontrollable. She tried to hide it behind her hands, but came up short of really succeeding. "Y-you really think so? I-I'm not really sure it's me though. Ummm-" she quickly tried to find away to direct his attention away from her before the embarrassment killed her. Hinata indicated with her hand at the woman standing next to her. "-This is Sosha-san, she is one of my, ummm, she is going to be one of my teachers I guess".

The woman in question waved at the gathered ninja, beaming with her best smile. "Hello all, it's nice to finally meet you all, right?"

While Naruto focused on the mortally embarrassed Hinata the resident open pervert's thoughts were of a slightly different matter. _It's like the boy lives in a complete stat of Narutoblivion or something. 'Sosha' on the other hand has my fantasies all a buzzing if I do say so myself O-ho-ho-ho. _The stupid grin that came to his face didn't do much to hide the contents of his thoughts as his eyes gave the Jounin a once-over.

Hinata moved closer to the couch where Naruto sat, still giving no signs that he had been in any dire situation other than the fact his replacement jacket was gone and an unfamiliar shirt had taken it's place. "Are you okay Naruto-kun? We were told something had happened". Her rapt concern for his wellbeing was so obvious that only Naruto himself didn't notice how deep the worry went.

"Of course not Hinata. You know me, I just slipped up while training with Gaara is all. We accidentally broke the wall of one the rooms here" He beat his hand against his chest to prove his point, demonstrating with the solid knock that he wasn't under any pain

Baki's surprise was obvious, thankfully no one was paying attention to him to notice. _I know he had to have suffered some injury from 'that'. Is the Kyuubi in him really so strong?_

Hinata remained unconvinced but let the matter drop, sensing that the man behind the desk against the far wall was not amused by their light banter.

The messenger, seeing that his presence had been quickly ignored bowed to Baki, than to Chiyo, and promptly left the room. As he was leaving the room he almost crashed into Narima as the Konoha representative arrived in the room at a run. He was breathless and his cheeks puffed violently with each labored breath, bent over with hands-on-knees "I… am too… out of shape… to be chasing… around ninjas". The cigarette in the man's mouth probably wasn't helping, but no one in the room felt like wasting their breath.

Baki threw up his hands in frustration "I try and get everyone to a meeting for an entire day, but the second that I've given up you all just show up!"

Narima sucked in a huge gulp of air before straightening up, giving a mock salute "Representative Narima reporting and ready".

"Hardly ready I'd say" Sosha jumped in. She subtly stepped between him and Hinata lest he try and hit on her too.

* * *

After a disgruntled Baki had vented his anger at the assembled personages order began to slowly trickle back. The large window behind the desk let in the light coming from the descending sun a little too well, the entire room was bathed in a deepening array of oranges and reds. He started with the newest addition to their group. "Narima where have you been? It seems as if I can't get a single leaf-nin around here to not complicate my life".

"Oh! That would be my doing sir, I left him with a sizable tab for the last time he pulled that trick on me" Sosha raised her hand without any sign that she was apologetic.

Narima looked like he was going to give a rebuttal, but a silencing wave of Baki's hand quieted whatever he was going to say "Tell me Sosha, is what she said true? Have you decided to be one of her trainers?" He could only imagine what exactly the thorn in his side of a woman would teach her.

"You know it. I found out she has knack for Suiton so I decided I would be the best person to train her. I know that there won't be a problem with that, right?"

"At least one of your Gennin has been taking this training seriously Jiraiya-" His barbed compliment was cut short, a rapidly increasing occurrence he was finding, as Naruto near jumped out of his seat at the news.

"Really Hinata? That's so cool. That means you'll be able to do that water dragon thing Kakashi-Sensei does!" Naruto turned around in his seat to shower even more compliments.

Sosha poked Hinata's ribs with her elbow "I told you so" she whispered.

"Ill ask you not to interrupt me if you don't mind. Now, as I was saying-" Naruto mumbled insolently even as Baki spoke "-If this is true than that closes the matter. Next is the question of the other two's training".

Lee had been banking on training with Gaara, but he didn't think if it was the greatest of ideas anymore if it meant he might go sailing through walls. He held his tongue though, eager to get whatever he could.

Sosha waited for a break in Baki's rant before interjecting her interruption. With a great yawn she pretended to be tired, whereas she was really just bored with the man's presence. "Well I'm beat, might go hit the sack for awhile. Oh yeah, Hinata will be staying with me so don't worry about that too hard". This prompted Hinata to shoot her Sannin Sensei a glance, which he simply replied to with a nod. Sosha doled out another one of her smiles "dinner's at my place tonight everyone-" at the hopeful look that played across Narima's face she knocked him down a peg"-not you". With an air of finality Sosha wrapped an arm around the smaller girl's shoulders and preceded out the door. Hinata kept glancing back at Naruto even as they cleared the doorway, wanting to say something but not entirely sure what.

Naruto did the honors of saying the farewells. "See ya' later Hinata. I hope you'll have ramen!" and they were gone.

"Have you given any thought to Naruto and Lee's training Jiraiya?" Baki was just glad a few minor annoyances had been crossed out of his extensive list for now.

"As the person who was taking care of him, I'd like to make sure he's recovering if you don't mind" Chiyo finally spoke up. Being the closest to Lee he jumped the highest. The old woman had melded into the background and only know did people realize that she was still in the room.

Jiraiya patted Lee on the shoulder encouragingly "Don't worry boy, you'll be fine by the morning so we can think about your training then". Having been given his Sensei's blessing Lee got up from his seat to follow Chiyo who herself was already in the process of vacating the room. He spared a quick moment to bow to the remaining people in the room "Farewell Naruto-kun, Jiraiya Sensei". As he reached the door he stuck his hand out at Gaara "It is nice to see you again Gaara-san".

Gaara took the offered hand in a gentle grip. The most moderate of handshakes was given along with an agreeing nod. Taking an interest in a good chance at humor Gaara left Lee with "I look forward to the time when we can train. Ill make sure there are no hospitals nearby next time".

Chiyo poked her head around the corner, almost getting knocked out by one Lee's knees. "Ill make sure to send him to Sosha's place later so leave me alone for the rest of the day at least!" and with that her head disappeared from the doorway, having looked very much like a human whack-a-mole.

That left only Gaara, Naruto, Jiraiya and Baki in the room. Once Baki was sure that there was no one within earshot of the room the Advisor turned his attention solely on Naruto. "Now that we are the only ones left I will say this. I can only assume that either Kyuubi or Shukaku had something to do with the earlier incident. Considering your past history with Gaara you really shouldn't have been let in Sunagakure. Gaara insisted you be allowed to come so I really had no choice". As to why he had no choice it was not made clear. "I warn you now because I apparently wasn't able to get to you in time that you are not, _not_, allowed to let the Kyuubi out under any circumstances" The entire village could have been destroyed if Gaara hadn't knocked you out".

At those words Naruto could not hide his shock. He tried to defend himself "I still don't really know what happened. One minute I was fighting with Gaara and remember feeling a little tired, and the next-"

"Whether you remember or not is beside the point. The Kyuubi is too dangerous to face with an oblivious eye". Baki paused to let it sink in to the junior ninja. The dejected look on the boy's face told him his words had finally gotten through. "I decided it would be prudent if I didn't say anything around your companions so at least be grateful for that. If you understand the situation than good. If you're going to Sosha's place for dinner than I will send a messenger there later with letter's on temporary lodging allotments for you all". Gaara became the target of Baki's gaze next "Gaara and I have to go see off his siblings so I must bid you farewell now". Baki started making his way to the door, stopping only long enough to get up close to Jiraiya "You blasted Sannin are always causing trouble for us Suna one way or the other. We've already got you and that slug-witch involved with us, don't bring that traitorous snake bastard back down on our heads if you can help it". With that last remark Baki left the room not even looking back to see if Gaara was following or not.

The crestfallen Naruto looked to Gaara pleadingly. Gaara held the gaze for a long time, considering his words carefully before he replied. "Don't worry about it. No one got hurt and Baki will take care of cleaning up the mess". He paused. "I'm just glad that I had a chance to do for you what you did for me". Naruto nodded slowly, his spirits lifting a little at the kind words.

When Gaara finally turned to leave Jiraiya was left alone with Naruto for the first time since their mission had begun. Not one accustomed to long bouts of silence Jiraiya attempted to lighten the mood "I can't wait for dinner tonight that's for sure. My eyes might get full before my belly does if that woman is there to feed me Brouhaha!"

If Naruto had been in normal spirits that would have been the point in which he would yell something about being a shameless pervert. When no such denouncement was made Jiraiya grew a little worried.

It was a long time before Naruto said anything, his usual good mood having abandoned him. "Ero-Sennin" his voice was soft and completely devoid of cheer "I actually do remember what happened. I remember all of it, every second. I couldn't control myself at all, and that's never happened before. I thought of Sasuke, and how I wasn't doing anything to get closer to bringing him back. I've been treating this mission like it was a nice walk in a park. I almost forgot what I originally wanted to start training for. When I thought about that I got angry and called out to Kyuubi, I'm not even sure why".

Jiraiya walked slowly over to the desk and sat on it's edge facing Naruto, no longer in a joking mood.

"It's getting easier to give in to the urge to use him Ero-Sennin. It's like he's getting a stronger voice in my head but I don't even realize it yet, I don't know what to do. Tell me, if I continue like this here, will I really be able to bring back Sasuke, is this really better than the training I would have gotten if we were alone? What if the next time I get in a fight the Kyuubi comes right back, what if he hurts another one of my friends like he did Gaara? I used to be able to control it pretty well, but ever since I fought Sasuke it's like something I can't see changed to where I have to struggle just to keep him at bay".

Jiraiya took this moment to lean forward and place a reassuring hand on his charge's shoulders. _You've really left me with a demon of a problem haven't you old friend_? "Cheer up Naruto, I have an idea that might help you. What you need is some training that'll boost your concentration. I know that isn't your strongest point but we have plenty of time to work on that". He was relieved when Naruto's face brightened up. He'd have no idea what else he could say if that hadn't worked. "Come on boy, for now just shove that into the back of your mind for now and let's see if we can find someone to show us where Sosha's house is. They seemed to have forgotten to tell _us _where exactly her place _is_, but this too can be considered training".

**A/N: In the very first part with Hinata, her inner monologue, I wanted to show that she's more than likely been blind to Naruto's more chaotic side so she has misconceptions about his ability to avoid danger. Next time the training finally commences (sorry for the wait) for our three favorite Gennin.**


	12. 12 Application of Will

**I don't own Naruto**

**A/N: I'm pretty happy with this chapter. After the next chapter of training the story will finally pick up some steam I promise. Read and review, and review, and read, maybe think about it for a little while, and then review some more.**

The sun baked the surface of the desert like an unrelenting blast furnace from it's position high in the middle of the cloudless sky. A plethora of gigantic sand swells stretched out as far as the eye could see. The hope of shade in such a place was such a far cry from any rational thought that the mere thought of it only seemed to make the day hotter.It seemed unimaginable that the sun could be a source of adequate light and warmth in one place, and be an inhospitable orb of searing heat and blinding rays in another.

Naruto had been forced to choose a different set of attire when his last jacket had been shredded in only two days. He now wore a Suna-style vest decked out in the standard drab brown color with along-sleeved black shirt underneath. Replacing his bright orange pants, the only things that had originally survived, was a pair of cargo pants the same color as his vest. His blue sandals no longer matched his outfit so he had switched them for a pair of brown Suna sandals.

Naruto had been forced to endure such conditions for little under a week now as part of Jiraiya's concentration exercises. When the idea to train way out in the middle of the desert had first been forced on him by the Sannin he couldn't fathom why training with mind-scrambling heat beating on him at all hours of the day was supposed to help with concentration. After six days of heat, sand, and non-stop training Naruto believed he was finally getting it.

The object of the exercise as put forth by Jiraiya was simple enough. "Lucky enough for you, you already possess the perfect Jutsus to use in this training. Not counting the Kichiyose Jutsu can you guess what they are?" Jiraiya had asked him a week ago on the night of his last encounter with the Kyuubi's influence.

Naruto didn't have to think to hard on the question as there were really only two techniques he knew that required concentration. "The Rasengan and the walk-on-water Jutsu!" he had replied eagerly.

"Close enough I guess. The first one is indeed the Rasengan, but the second one is you Kage Bunshin Jutsu, though the walk-on-water technique comes in to play a little later itself".

"But I don't use any concentration for that Jutsu" Naruto had replied, not sure where the Ero-Sennin was going with this.

"Don't you think that might be the problem? You dump a lot of chakra into the Jutsu and just wildly summon clones. Most of the time they're just given the order to mindlessly attack their enemy or act as a decoy aren't they? That's not even a fraction of what that Jutsu is capable of. Yes it's a sound tactic sometimes to simply summon a couple hundred clones and overwhelm an opponent, but you must have come across situations where no matter your numerical superiority you still failed?"

Naruto thought really hard about this and the two events that jumped out at him was the fight against Neji, and the fight against Kimimaro. Both times he had been so confident in his Bunshin Jutsu that the sting of such masterful routings of his Jutsu was felt even now. Choosing not to elaborate on the particulars of those defeats he simply answered "yes".

"Alright than, I'll just assume whatever happened during those times you just pumped out as many clones as possible in hopes one of them would do some damage. Despite what you may think even the Kage Bunshin isn't a perfect replica. The Jutsu itself is incomplete, but that's beside the point right now. The point is that the clones don't have a wide range of flexibility outside of the parameters they're summoned under. You're control over them is so bad that they even argue with you Naruto. Whoever taught you the Jutsu failed to explain the finer points of the summoning process" Jiraiya stopped as he saw that Naruto wasn't quite getting it. He racked his brain for a simpler explanation that the boy would be able to relate to. It came to him easily enough "Think about the Kage Bunshin as Gaara's sand. It's controlled mentally, but it can also act on its own. The speed, flexibility, and power of his sand is greatly heightened when he's in direct control because he can issue orders directly and change it's functionality on the fly. When the sand is not being directly controlled it is only getting a small subconscious link from Gaara, one so small that it only performs basic tasks such as guarding or attacking… do you get it now?"

Naruto's face had scrunched up in concentration for a very long time, so long that Jiraiya thought the boy might have fallen asleep. After almost a minute of ponderous thought Naruto finally opened his eyes. "Are you saying that if I think really hard about what I want my clones to do they'll be able to do a lot more. That must mean that I'd have to be constantly thinking about what I want them to do right?" There had also been times when he had gotten his clones do to more than just attack or misdirect, but the exact event wasn't coming to him.

Jiraiya had to mentally restrain himself from slapping his forehead. _They never made them this dense in my day_. "Yeah, at it's basics that's the gist of it. The more you concentrate and regulate chakra control the more you'll get out of a single clone. For example, you could tell a dozen clones to surround and charge and enemy, or you could plan and direct an assault of a few finely tuned clones that could coordinate attacks, react faster, and even use your own Jutsus if the chakra control is good enough". it looked like that had gotten through to him. "There is one last thing". He hoped that Naruto wouldn't try to absorb all of this new information in vain and end up forgetting it all. "There is a difference between overusing chakra in the creation of a clone and wasting it, and concentrating the chakra for the clone's own personal use. That's where the ability to use Jutsus comes into play".

Back in the present Naruto contemplated those words. The concept had been completely beyond him a week ago, but there had been some definite improvement since then he was sure of it. The exercise he was currently running through simulated being incapacitated, a condition that excluded the use of his eyes. The point was to use the four separately controlled super clones to be his eyes at the same time serving as his body guards. It took everything he had to control the information flow to and from the clones. Perceiving four sets of visual stimuli was a heavy burden on his mind, not to mention the constant exchange of information was taxing him beyond his limits.

Naruto sat cross legged in the middle of a circle of four clones, his face scrunched up in supreme concentration. He had managed to go for twenty minutes like this before the migraine started, a new record for him. Trying to control the clones with the migraine setting in was akin to trying to catch water with a net. His control slipped only for a second, but his opponent must have noticed the change as a rain of needle-like hair slammed into one of his clones, destroying it. The feedback of pain was only for an instant, but it was almost enough to completely tear away his remaining concentration.

It was a lot harder to maintain the tight bond with the other three clones while summoning a fourth. It would be a lot easier to simply break the contact with the three current clones and summon four new ones, but if he did that he'd be completely defenseless, if even for a second. Molding his chakra into a tight ball before starting the Bunshin Jutsu Naruto was able to summon a super clone to replace the one that had fallen. Upon completing the summoning a new barb of pain lanced through his mind. Whatever Jiraiya had said it was far more than just concentration that was required for this tactic.

Through the haze his throbbing head was creating he could feel chakra being molded somewhere off to his left, too vague to be of much use to him but it was all he had to go on. Reacting as quickly as he could Naruto ordered the clone off to his right to summon two simple Kage Bunshins for the Super Clone on his left to use. The Super clone 'knew' the Kage Bunshins were coming, and prepared for their arrival by extending his hand and already starting the process of the Rasengan. When the new Bunshins appeared they immediately set to the task of acting as control rods for the quickly forming spiraling sphere.

A rolling ball of fire appeared from over the crest of the nearest sand dune, hurtling towards Naruto's position almost too fast for the Super Clone's effort to be considered a waste. The clone's hand shot forward to intercept the fireball, meeting it with a fully formed Rasengan. Just before contact the Super Clone added an influx of instability to the sphere "Rasengan Explosion!". The resulting pressure wave cased by the exploding chakra ball completely extinguished the fireball.. The effort of organizing the Rasengan and trying to withstand the near-pointblank explosion ended up being too much for him. All six of his clones 'poofed' out of existence at the same time, and Naruto fell back onto the hot sand. His frustration won out against his sense of self-preservation as he lay there, not caring if there was a forthcoming attack.

Naruto's muscles ached all the time, he was quite used to that, but he really wasn't used to his _brain_ aching. He didn't even know his brain could ache. _I'm not a genius like Shikamaru, if it came down to it I'd rather use my fist than my head._

"Well kid you did better than yesterday that's for sure". Naruto felt a shadow fall over him prompting his eyes to snap open. His perverted teacher stood over him, blocking the sun from his eyes with his mass of spiky hair. "I never thought of using the Rasengan like that, I'm impressed!" praise coming from Jiraiya was a rare event, yet Naruto couldn't feel happy in the face of his failure.

"Ero-Sennin" he groaned "I keep trying this concentration stuff but I'm not really sure if it's helping at all. All I really know is that headaches are not my best friends".

Jiraiya smiled down at his pupil. _The speed at which he can form a Rasengan is halved since we started a week ago although he still relies on his clones to help form it. That explosion technique is interesting as well. His mental powers have come along much further than that even if he doesn't see it._ "Haven't you been trying to think ahead, anticipating my moves and readying counterattacks? Haven't you been able to keep your cool in bad situations better than you used to? Don't you feel that you're more in control of a situation than you sued to be? Hmmmm?" He drove each point home by stabbing a finger down at Naruto. "You're just not used to using your brain like you have been these past days. Tell me, you've been in fights before where all of a sudden you knew exactly what you had to do and exactly how to do it right? I know you Naruto. Most of the time you get by with trying radical tactics out of the blue or throwing your most powerful attacks at the enemy. Lately, however, You've been showing a good deal of foresight and planning in our exercises. Don't say it's not working when it's clear as day that it is".

Naruto sat up quickly, placing his hands on his knees to steady himself. Thinking back there was one of the most recent times when he was fighting that sound nin. He remembered wanting the 'genius' that had allowed him to fight against Sasuke, but getting frustrated when it didn't come to him. Thinking it over he realized that since the training had begun he felt a lot more like he did while fighting Sasuke. As the pervert had said he was beginning to get a sense of what he needed to do and how to do it. _How come I didn't notice it before?_ Naruto got to his feet and turned to face his Sensei. "You're right Ero-Sennin. I'm not really sure why I didn't see it before, but I think I understand what you're talking about".

Jiraiya placed a reassuring hand on Naruto's shoulder, giving him a generous smile. "Don't worry kid, I know it's tough but this is the quickest way to get stronger. Being a ninja of Konoha means you're not a kid anymore. You can't always charge your problems head on or throw kunai and ask questions later". Releasing his grip on the boy's shoulder his visage became serious. "What do you think about the other training, keeping the Kyuubi under control?" If Jiraiya could keep forcing Naruto's mind to be in a constant state of focus than there might be a good amount of improvement. The boy had already come so far in just a week, one more week might truly start showing the signs he was looking for. If Naruto could develop his concentration and sharpen his mind further than it would be safe to bet that the problems with Kyuubi would go away, not to mention the added benefit of a mental prowess somewhere close to what any Jounin would be proud to claim as their own

Every night Jiraiya had Naruto call out to the Kyuubi from deep within his mind. Being miles out in the desert had its advantages as there was no one around to get caught in the cross-fire if something were to go wrong. The second he felt the Kyuubi's chakra start to stir he was to focus as much as possible into 'shutting the door' as it were on the demon's chakra. These exercises were showing a much greater deal of improvement over his other training. Naruto could now let enough Kyuubi chakra out to the point that his wounds would start to heal before he began to loose control. When he had started he could barely tap into the chakra without feeling that the Kyuubi was dominating him, a definite improvement. Thinking about the Kyuubi inevitably lead him to thinking about his friends.

Naruto had been so focused on his training that he had nearly forgotten about his companions back in Sunagakure, or even that there was a mission behind this training. After the night at Sosha's place Jiraiya had hastily declared that he and Naruto would be leaving for a week or two and to expect them back then. Standing there in the blazing sun he wondered what Hinata and Lee were up to. As he thought about Hinata he came to a startling realization. He missed her. Naruto was perplexed by this revelation because he couldn't really put a finger on why he missed her. He hadn't even spent that much time talking to her. _I don't know what's happening to me. All I know is that I miss how quite she is. Has she been using that Hyuuga scroll? When I was in that room with her I was so calm, even when she was asleep I just sat there trying not to disturb her. _ Is she doing alright? _Why can't I stop thinking about what she's doing?_ The thought confused him. He had no basis, no experience with such a foreign thought. What was it about her that was doing this to him? Regardless of the exact reason as Naruto stood there in the sun, a slight breeze teasing his sweat-soaked body he felt just a little bit warmer because of it.

* * *

"No girl that's not it at all. Haven't you payed attention to a word I've said!" Hinata flinched under the newest berating assault from her healing Jutsu instructor. Hinata had been kneeling in front of the same dead bird for the past thirty minutes, Chiyo standing to one side offering what she probably thought was encouragement. The girl actually felt sorry for the poor bird. Chiyo had used some Jutsu on the bird, killing it, then telling her pupil that she had a hour to revive the bird before it remained that way.

The room they were occupying was one of many rooms in the hospital's R&D wing. As medical Jutsu and more conventional methods of medical care were still unperfected a great deal of time and money was spent on it's continuing development. The room itself was a whitewash cube not much bigger than a normal bedroom. The bird in question occupied the only piece of furniture in the room, a small wooden block of wood, only there for easy cleanup if it became necessary.

To Hinata's credit she had finally mastered healing small cuts and dispelling bruises, but suddenly being expected to perform something as this was beyond her. The type of chakra control and shaping that was needed was on a completely different level.

"Being a Hyuuga you should have more than enough control to perform this level of medical Jutsu. You just have to concentrate on willing the cells inside the bird to regenerate themselves. Not only do you need to revive the damaged cells within it's body but at the same time you must focus your chakra like it's an extension of your hand. If you must think of your chakra as penetrating it's heart, straight to the Sinoatrial Node and reintroduce the electrical impulses it needs to beat again". Chiyo would never admit it to her pupil but she had a lot of faith in her. The only thing that held Hinata back was an underlying lack of confidence in herself that showed it's ugly head from time to time.

Hinata had spent the past week of Naruto's absence reading, cross-referencing, and re-reading every disturbingly large medical text Chiyo had thrown her way. Much to the chagrin of her self proclaimed 'older sister' she was not allowed to even think about training until she could at least learn the basics of medical Jutsus. This was her final test in the basics, reviving a recently deceased organism before oxygen would be permanently cut off from the brain. Thanks to her studies she knew exactly what and where the Sinoatrial Node was, but for some reason the green tinted chakra radiating from her outstretched hands to the bird was not obeying her. The extensive list of revival techniques was laid out before her in her mind and she had practiced for hours on the specific differences on how to mold normal chakra and healing chakra. She just lacked the confidence in herself to pull this off.

_I have no idea why she expects so much out of me after only a week. I'm in way over my head._ _What would Naruto-kun say if he was here? If he were here I'm sure he'd tell me to do my best… Am I so dependent on what he says to get me through even my smallest difficulties. _It was true that she always felt better when Naruto was around, and a simple word of encouragement from him was enough to make her feel capable of anything. Did it mean that she was addicted to it. Could she really not get by without Naruto being there and 'holding her hand'? She had always wished her abilities were something greater. Maybe then she'd be able to live up to that important person's praise. Yet, when she finally had a chance to gather up some abilities that would make her, in her eyes, worthy of Naruto, was she going to squander it by letting her doubts tell her it was impossible? _NO!_ "NO!"

Hinata's sudden loud outburst surprised Chiyo into taking an involuntary step back. _Oh dear, it looks like another student's mind has snapped._

_If I don't believe in myself now and do this then I'll never be able to face him again_. The truth of that filled her with resolve. If she couldn't do something as simple as reviving a dead animal how would she ever be able to do such a difficult task as conveying her feelings would be.

For the first time since the Chuunin preliminary exams Hinata's resolve solidified into a core of stoic determination. That in itself gave her idea. _The Chuunin exam… _She redoubled her efforts, concentrating on every minute detail of the bird. What made the medical Jutsus so effective was their ability to act as a scanner as they simultaneously performed the duty of scalpel and medicine. However, that wasn't the only card she could play.

She concentrated all of her Jutsu's power into one hand freeing her other to perform the necessary seal for her to activate her Byakugan. Sadly her Byakugan and gentle-fist training suffered due to the urgency of the medical training. Mere moments ago Hinata would have felt ashamed that even now she still felt the need for a seal in activating her Kekkai Genkai but as it stood now she had no time for such nonsense.

The chakra in her body shifted drastically at the activation, her eyes filling with an abnormal amount of chakra. Her milky-white pupils focused sharply, and the veins around her eyes bulged with the power now being piped around them. In an instant she could see the birds chakra flow system. Even if the Byakugan was capable of seeing much more all she needed was this. While carefully monitoring the flow of chakra within the bird she brought both hands back down over the corpse and began reapplying the medical Jutsu. Using her special vision she was able to masterfully direct where the chakra went and how it interacted with the bird's own chakra. The Sinoatrial Node came first. Her healing chakra washed over all the affected areas of the bird like a river. Hinata's thoughts were consumed with the simple phrase _'come back'. _It repeated over and over again in her mind like a mantra. In a series of cascading events the Node was revived, then the heart started beating, oxygen was pumped back to the brain, electrical impulses were sent throughout the body, the lungs started to pump, the bird had been revived.

Hinata was so deep in concentration of trying to revive the bird that when it did come back to life, squawking wildly and flapping it's wings she fell back in surprise. It made a great deal of fuss over coming back from the dead. Hinata looked from the bird to her Sensei in surprise. She couldn't just yet believe that she had managed to pull it off. _I actually did it, I managed to do real Medical Jutsu!_

As the bird took flight in attempt to escape the room Chiyo went over it with her own critical eye. There were things that could have been done better she knew, the poor bird probably had a nasty headache, but for a first try this was one of the best jobs she had seen in a very long time. She placed a gentle hand over Hinata's own and offered the girl her first warm smile in a long time. "A long time ago I lost my way, using my talents for killing instead of healing like they were intended. I must say it makes an old woman happy that I can try and at least correct a few of my mistakes through you".

Hinata smiled in kind, glad not only that she really had managed to do something as amazing as medical Jutsu but that the elderly Sensei really did have a good streak in her somewhere.

The moment being over Chiyo turned away from Hinata to stare at the bird, itself starting to settle down. "Ill admit I had you study with the idea that you'd be using seals in conjunction with your healing chakra to perform the Jutsu. I did that on purpose to throw you off. The Medic Jutsu that slug Tsunade teaches is all well in good but I teach the techniques that matter when there is no time to set up a pretty séance circle".

Hinata took this to heart. It was much easier when she had been practicing to use a seal that had been set up before hand to aid the process, but they did sometimes take a long time to set up. She quoted one of the book's passages to Chiyo to prove she understood "A Medic-nin must always be as fast and efficient as possible, the enemy won't wait patiently for you to heal their enemy's wounds". It had been translated from a far older text and Hinata wasn't really sure it was a completely accurate translation.

"Very good". Chiyo snatched the bird out of mid-air, holding it firmly, yet not enough to hurt. "One last thing, healing chakra isn't like your personal chakra. In truth it _is _made from your chakra but one of the big differences between the two is that your healing chakra will only grow and get stronger as you mold it specifically for that purpose. Your normal chakra however will grow and strengthen based on many numerous factors. Keep this in mind and keep molding the chakra every chance you get. A Medic-nin's greatest asset is the strength and reserve of healing chakra they have". Chiyo placed the bird in a pouch hanging at her side. "You pass. I have some things I must attend for the next few days so feel free to take up your training with her if you want". The old lady made her way slowly to the door, turning around one last time before leaving. She knew very well about Hinata's chronic self-doubt, the girl didn't hide it nearly as well as she thought. "You did well today Hinata. You deserve every ounce of pride you must feel right now" and she was gone.

Hinata allowed herself to collapse back onto the floor. For the first time in a long while she laughed. She couldn't believe how good it felt. She didn't believe it was possible, but she felt better right now than any other single moment in her life. She had done it, She had finally done something no one else she knew had achieved, and she had done it for herself, not just because of Naruto's influence. _I think I like myself a little bit more than I did yesterday. I finally have some confidence that is mine and mine alone. Day by day I will get stronger so I can catch up with Naruto-kun… and one day I just might be able to walk by his side._ The thought warmed her heart more than it ever had in the past because for the first time it looked like it finally might be within her grasp

**A/N: Considering the leap Naruto took with his Fuuton training in Shipuuden, this mental training isn't so far fetched I think. I have no intention of making Hinata a super-medic like Tsunade, but I do have a good idea as to where her skills in that area lie. It's really hard to come up with reasons for Naruto to take interest in Hinata with so little interaction, but I promise there will be much, much more Naruhina moments coming up. Sorry no Lee, stuff came up so I'll get around to Lee next time.**


	13. 13 Lifting Clouds

**I don't own Naruto**

**A/N: It's difficult to write scenes for the Sunagakure parts because I'm always thinking 'Narutotrees, green, rivers'. It gets frustrating sometimes. I'm really not happy with this chapter, I think I might take a week hiatus soon to reorganize and correct all of my chapters. I'm open to suggestions about what I should do to fix the typos in my chapters. Some I'm aware of but there's a lot of grammar issues I know I'm probably missing. Give me some hints if you will but try and be gentle. I am a fickle author. REVIEW OR THE MONKEY LORDS WILL COME!! (SupCom joke)**

Lee's recovery had been swift. With the help of Chiyo he had been released from the hospital only a day after the events at the hospital. Unlike his visits to hospitals in the past this one had been very short, the shortest if he remembered correctly. He hadn't even had time to grow restless and attempt his random stints of impromptu training this time.

He had been set adrift the first few days after his hospital visit, Jiraiya having left to some unknown place with Naruto. Hinata was busy with her training under Chiyo, and Gaara was very rarely available for whatever reason. Lee knew he might well have been bothered by the fact that there was no _real_ reason he was here if he didn't have the dauntless personality bequeathed to him by his Gai-Sensei. Like he had promised himself from the onset of the mission, he began to train alone. Narima had set it up so Lee could leave the village when he needed to train, choosing a rocky field as his new training ground. He used his last two fights as a basis for his training rather than simply going through a series of exercises and workouts like he was usually prone to do.

His own Taijutsu skills, as impressive as they were, seemed to always barely come up short every time. _I managed to fight that sound girl to a draw at least, but Gai-Sensei would never allow_ _it! I must show Gai-Sensei that I'm worthy of being a 'good guy'_.Lee redoubled his efforts, smashing apart rocks left and right as if his original Sensei was watching him.

After the third boulder this day was reduced to rubble He began working on the next one. His body went through a complicated set of motions in a blur of fists and feet. He threw a few quick punches then spun low into a hand plant. His hands spun over each other while his feet landed devastating blows against the rock. After a few of these he pushed off with his hands away from the rock, landing on his feet a couple yards back he immediately charged the rock again. He hit the rock full force, a circle of cracks spider webbed out from the center of his punch. He reared back with his other hand for another punch when he suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. Sensing the danger he put his body into an immediate spin. He wasn't sure what to expect, but when his fist came into contact with a drift of sand suspended in mid-air he relaxed. The sand dispersed from around his fist revealing Gaara standing a couple dozen feet in front of him. Gaara looked the same as he did the day everyone had last been together, except this time he had his standard gourd strapped to his back.

Lee straightened, putting his hands to his hips and snapped his head back and forth with an audible 'crack'. "Gaara, I am surprised to see you". After a pause he struck a pose, giving the newcomer a thumbs-up, the 'nice-guy' pose "would you like to train with me?"

Gaara, ever with his hands across his chest, simply nodded ascent. That was the only warning Lee had before the sand all around him started churning.

Tracks of sand arced off the ground all around him as all the remaining sand on the ground began shifting wildly. Lee knew instinctually that if he didn't keep moving the sand would suck him down or worse. He sobered up quickly, knowing very well that even if it _was_ an exercise you didn't take Gaara lightly. He was already a good distance away from Gaara, and remaining at that distance would not be to his advantage. He sprinted forward, avoiding every grabbing tendril of sand with increasing difficulty the closer the distance between them closed. About halfway to his destination two boulders twice his own size were launched into the air on huge plumes of smoke. They both continued straight up into the air so he pushed it to the back of his mind while he closed in on Gaara. Just as he reached Gaara he realized his mistake. The second those boulders had been launched he didn't have to avoid the sand tendrils anymore. Instead of following through with his planned assault he stopped himself in a full body skid before leaping away from Gaara. His instincts served him well as one of the boulders smashed into sand right in front of Gaara, right where he had been only a fraction of a second ago. He was so close that the sand spray from the impact washed completely over him. His instincts were finely honed by constant close-combat, and they were telling him it was time to start moving again. Without a second thought he reversed his direction and jumped towards the first boulder. As he landed squarely on top of the oversized rock the second one came crashing down behind him.

After Gaara's second boulder missed Lee by only a hairsbreadth he was left with only his sand once again. He swung his hand out in a wide arc, ordering all the sand to converge on the boulders. With a vicious surge the sand crashed against the boulders like breaker waves, and continued their surge upward. He wasn't surprised in the least when Lee jumped high into the air to avoid the grasping wave. The sand continued to follow it's prey in his arc through the air that brought him landing straight in front of Gaara. Lee wasted no time swinging down with a foot in an attempt to leg sweep him. In reaction the sand-nin simply ordered a small swell under his feet, forcing Lee's foot to meet a bank of sand instead of his ankle. His gourd already burst apart in anticipation of the next attack which came seamlessly with the failure of the first one. The especially dense sand snapped immediately into a shield, protecting his front side. Completely taking him by surprise, Lee's fist destroyed his shield stopping just short of making contact with him. He involuntarily took a step back, shock plain on his face. _His monstrous strength… will it ever stop surprising me? _Before Lee could continue attacking the sand finally caught up with it's intended target, crushing him into the ground.

Lee was forced flat onto the ground as his back buckled under the extreme pressure of the descending sand. All the crushing sand brought back images of that time in his life when Gaara had been his enemy and he almost lost his ability to stay a ninja. The combination of the slack he could suddenly feel form within the crushing sand and the sense of fear he was feeling because of the crushing sand infused him with a new sense of determination. He managed to push himself far enough off the ground to give himself enough leeway to try and get out of the prison of sand. After a few vain efforts to try and brake free he knew he really only had one option left.

"First gate open!" the muffled cry coming from Lee spelled what could be a mounting load of trouble. Gaara increased the pressure of his sand just enough to not be painful, but quickly found that it wasn't going to be enough. Lee exploded into a rapid spin parallel to the ground, punching and kicking with each revolution until he had enough room to dash out from under the sand. Gaara only had enough time to reform his sand shield partially before a sheet of training weights smashed it apart. He knew how dangerous Lee could be with that unnatural speed. His futile attempts to locate Lee revealed nothing. Knowing that an attack was not far off he ordered his sand into a maze of twisting strands around him. The speed and power in which Lee could attack with would not be stopped by such measures but it might slow him down. _So much stronger, so much faster than before_. He couldn't even feel Lee's movements anywhere on the sand within an entire mile stretching out in any direction. Gaara was ready to implement a sand eye when an explosion off to his left signaled the end of that idea. He looked only to see a huge hole in his sand, he was too slow to see where Lee went to next. Almost in an exact replay of the Chuunin exam fight an explosion from directly behind told him a another section of his sand maze had disappeared. Not wanting this to be a repeat of that awful day Gaara decided to take the guesswork out of the situation.

After the second attempt to get through Gaara's random defense Lee was getting frustrated. It was different from before, where he could have simply gotten in close and confused Gaara with random attacks. He flexed his right arm, the remaining sheet of weights wrapped tightly around his hands. _I hope I won't have to use it, I wouldn't be doing the right thing_. There was too much sand in the way for him to get through without getting trapped in a veritable web of sand. He stopped on top of a boulder setting in the sand behind and to the left of Gaara, hoping that he wouldn't be noticed long enough to think up a plan. Without any warning whatsoever a huge area of sand beneath both him and Gaara disappeared. To be more accurate, it fell. Lee had no time to think why the ground was falling, only enough time to jump as the rock he was sitting on descended with the huge volume of sand. He'd had no time to think where he was jumping, and he paid for it instantly. Tendrils of sand shot down from somewhere in the sky to wrap around both his arms. Reacting more on instinct than will he brought his arms together, straining against the sand's hold, and kicked out with both feet, shattering the two tendrils. More tendrils of sand rose up to meet him in the other's absence. He kicked off the first wave of sand weapons as they reached him, sailing a little bit closer to Gaara's position, now on a floating sand platform above the huge pit. He then twisted midair to avoid a second wave, accidentally twisting too far and ending up upside down. This turned out to be a beneficial slip-up for him as stream of sand passed right under his head, where his torso should have been. This vantage point game him a good view of the pit he was over. He couldn't even see the bottom, a huge circle of darkness gaped out in every direction around him. He managed to avoid the rest of the tendrils, performing a somersault to right himself, until he fell close to the platform. Lee knew that there was no way he would be able to fight Gaara on such a small platform, and he also knew that there was no way he would be getting on the platform in the first place. Just as his feet were about to touch down the platform pulled away from him, once again leaving him to the mercy of gravity. Thinking quickly he grabbed at a nearby wedge of sand, steadying himself long enough to deliver a vicious kick to the retreating platform. As Lee bunched his arm muscle for a hasty push off the platform slammed into the far side of the pit. Lee pushed off from the wedge in pursuit, just as it broke it's form to try and ensnare him.

Gaara had been taken aback by the unorthodox way Lee destroyed his platform. It didn't deter him from 'abandoning ship' as his platform disintegrated against the side of his hastily made pit. His back flip took him in a lazy arc further away from the pit. He didn't have to look to be aware of Lee Juke and dodge away from his grasping sand weapons, at the same time using them as springboards to get clear of the pit. Lee landed in a crouch, than shot to his feet. The leaf-nin spared a quick glance to the pit before snapping his head back to face Gaara.

Lee pointed wildly at Gaara, his face bugging out "Gaara! That was too dangerous!"

Gaara simply shrugged his shoulders "You'll be fine". He ordered a large square patch of sand underneath Lee to brake away and fold upwards around the boy.

Lee shot into the air in an expert flip and came back down in a run, once again making a charge for Gaara. He didn't want to, but he felt it was time to use his trump card. When he was only a few yards off he began to pull the training weights off his right arm, readying them for his attack.

Gaara's personal sand snapped up back into a full-frontal shield, and he gathered more and more sand around him to offer as much protection as possible for the impending attack. Lee had become to fast for his sand weapons to catch, Gaara knew. He considered his options. The choices were to escalate the battle or end it now.

Lee dug in his heels just short of Gaara's sand shield, rearing back with his left hand. The weights extended out end-over-end until it resembled the world's most destructive whip. Lee swung it at only half strength, knowing that there was a good possibility he could seriously hurt Gaara if he were to swing as hard as he was capable of. The whip slammed into the sand shield with the desired effect. Gaara had only erected the shield in font of him, but the whip wrapped around the shield to arc around behind Gaara. It's momentum was greatly reduced by the impact against the sand but it still curled around with enough speed to avoid being ensnared in any more sand. The end of the weight whip smacked into Gaara's back with a loud 'crack!', staggering Gaara off balance towards Lee. He dropped the weights and lashed out with his free hand. The punch obliterated what was left of the shield. He had to stop himself from going too far, his fist stopped just centimeters from Gaara's grimacing face.

The two stood there in that position for awhile, not moving. It was a long few moments before Lee was able to tear his attention away from Gaara. What he thought was a decisive win for him turned out to actually be a draw. All around him spears of sand stuck out of the ground just short of piercing his body. He realized that the fight was already over, but his body took a little more time to comply. As he began to relax the sand spears broke apart, and all the remaining sand in the air poured back into the ground below.

Lee fell back to the ground on his hands, looking up at Gaara. "I didn't expect to get that far" Lee admitted allowed.

"I am impressed. I didn't think you would get that far either".

An insulted look came over Lee's face, but was quickly removed when he saw Gaara's lip curl in the shadow of a smile he was used to seeing him with. It was then that Lee started laughing, all the tension of the past washing away.

* * *

Hinata stood over a large basin of water concentrating as hard as she ever had during her training. After her preliminary training with Chiyo she had spent most of her days studying with Sosha in the main room of Sunagakure's garden complex. To her increasing chagrin she found that it was much harder for her to try Suiton than it had been to learn Medical Ninjutsu. Sosha had started her out with a simple manipulation Jutsu, something that would allow her to get used to manipulating the water element chakra and indoctrinate her into the ways of it's special molding. Hinata had only managed to get a few ripples out of the water even after a full week of trying. Like the thing she was trying to manipulate itself she kept feeling the control slip through her fingers.

Sosha had encouraged her little sister in all the ways she could think of, even molding the water chakra herself for hours, letting the girl closely monitor exactly how the chakra was molded inside her own body. After even that failed to work Sosha began to worry. There was no doubt that as a Hyuuga if not because of her own talents Hinata should have been able to advance at least to the first tier of Suiton techniques. She put a calming hand on the girl's shoulders as the strain of effort started to show on her face. "Hinata-chan, stop for now. Let's take a break".

Hinata disobeyed for a few more moments in a vain attempt to get something out of her efforts, but eventually gave up after the obvious became only more so. She sighed, looking to her Sensei and older sister "I don't get it Sosha-Onee-chan, why can I not do this when my Medic-nin training keeps improving. I read that Medical Ninjutsu was harder to learn than any single type of elemental Jutsu, but this…" she trailed off when she realized she was about to start repeating herself.

When Hinata finally had given in finally and started calling her 'sister' she counted it as one of the greatest moments in her life. Sosha adored the girl so, she was just so cute every time she got embarrassed at every little thing. More the reason she hated to see her little sister not succeed when she showed every bit of evidence to the contrary. "As much as I'd love to tell I have some brilliant idea, the truth is that I'm as stumped as you are. You've demonstrated both ability and control. Frankly you demonstrate more of both than I did at your age". She beamed at her sister then, trying to give Hinata something that would lift her spirits. Sosha suddenly thought of another way she could cheer Hinata up, talk about Naruto. "You know Naruto should be back soon, right? I know you've been counting the days until you can shyly follow him around the village again". She didn't mean to tease, but seriously, the girl just had to get a clue that Naruto was clueless about how she felt. To her credit, Hinata had stopped rising to her bait all the time. She hadn't however, managed to curb her furious blushing. To Sosha's eyes the girl had a long way to go still.

Sosha used to suggest that Hinata train in her Jyuuken style whenever their training ran into a wall. Mostly she asked Hinata to do so while she herself did research on why Hinata might be experiencing problems with the Suiton. Hinata always said that she had other things to do when she suggested that. Sosha found it odd that Hinata always seemed to put it off, but never pressed her for questions. Hinata was starting to open up to her with all kinds of aspects of her life. Her reason for being a ninja, what it was like with her old cell, a new friend by the name of Ino, and other things, but never anything about her family or bloodline.

Hinata stood up, staring at her pruning hands in disappointment. Every time she attempted to mold the chakra something seemed to go wrong. Most of the time she could only get a small reaction out of the water, or when she tried to summon her own she would just end up dampening her hands. There had been one time that she accidentally caused the water to burst out of the container, drenching both her and Sosha, yet she couldn't think that she had done anything different than the other times. It occurred to her that Sosha might have read her wrong the first time they had met, but nothing in the time they had known each other suggested that Sosha ever made mistakes. Hinata seriously doubted that could be it.

Molding the chakra for Suiton was in essence the same as molding chakra for the healing arts. She had gotten the knack of forming the medical chakra to the point where the simpler Jutsus no longer required any extraneous effort. What surprised her most about the whole situation was that she hadn't even thought of giving up yet. It used to be a matter of course that depression and a well acquainted defeatist attitude would settle in every time she failed at something. Lately however, she had been using her failure as a means to fuel her desire to succeed. Her newest sense of confidence had already brought her farther than she thought possible.

Everything she had read or been told by Sosha suggested that there was absolutely no reason for these complications. She wasn't comfortable enough asking any of the other Suna Ninja for help, yet she didn't want to bother her other two Sensei with any more of her problems if she had to either. There was one thing that had been rather unusual about the past week, something different from when she had been molding the Medical chakra. Somewhere deep in her abdomen was this sense of nothingness that always sprung up every time she began to mold the chakra for Suiton. It was that same empty feeling that she had when she had first arrived in Sunagakure. Thinking about it now Hinata had no idea why she had never told Sosha about it. Now that she was more aware of this _wrong_ feeling inside her it seemed best to tell her Sensei about it, but every time she tried something distracted her or thought better of it.

Sosha's familiar voice broke Hinata out of her reverie. "Why don't I make dinner tonight, I'm sorry that we've had to go out lately, but I've finally done some grocery shopping, so-"

Hinata suddenly sat back down in front of the basin, interrupting her Sensei with "I'd like to give it one more try, please". _The more I think about it the more it seems possible that my problems have something to do with whatever that _thing_ is inside of me._

Sosha, always one to allow her sister all the freedoms she wanted, could only consent. "Okay, but I have an idea. While you're molding your chakra I would like to analyze what exactly you're doing to see if I can see if you're experiencing any problems. You wouldn't mind right?" _Honestly if this doesn't work I'm not sure what to do. I'd hate to think that I screwed up, got her hopes up for noting_.

Something inside Hinata silently screamed for her not to allow that. Both the strangeness of that sudden thought and her propensity towards Sosha caused her to ignore it, whatever her confused instincts were telling her. "Sure, go ahead" her voice barely came out above a whisper, she wasn't sure why. _This is starting to scare me, what's going on?_

She waited until she felt Sosha's gentle hand rest against the back of her neck before re-engaging the seals for the Suiton practice Jutsu. She set her palms out toward the water basin before continuing. This time she concentrated on that empty spot inside her, ignoring the fact that she had no idea why it seemed like a viable idea. Almost immediately the chakra she was molding started warping on itself. It was too hard to explain, but it felt as if that emptiness was effecting her chakra. _Why didn't I notice this before… more importantly, why is this only happening with Suiton? _As she was about to apply the chakra to her Jutsu a door on the far side of the room burst open, almost breaking her concentration.

A voice she hadn't been expect to hear rang out in the relative silence of the garden "Oi Hinata! Long time no see!" Uzumaki Naruto strode into the room wearing an uncharacteristically Suna outfit.

The emptiness reacted to something with a surprising burst of speed. The Jutsu she was forming completed itself at the same time. Not having felt anything different from the last couple of dozen times Hinata ignored the obvious conclusion, keeping her attention on Naruto. There was something different about him, something she couldn't put her finger on. It was Almost as if he was… contained was the only word that came to mind. As Hinata continued to stare at the object of her affection, she couldn't help but notice a change in his expression.

"Wow Hinata! That's pretty cool, do you think you could teach me how to do that?" Naruto had an obvious congratulatory look on his face.

Hinata's heart started to fall when she thought she was being mocked. The feeling quickly went away upon realizing that there was no way Naruto would have meant that comment to come out like that.

"Uh, Hinata" Sosha's voice sounded just as amazed as Naruto's

She was about to ask what was wrong when a splash of water landed on her face, causing an involuntary flinch. Startled by the sudden contact she quickly glanced at her water basin. What her eyes saw took a long time to register. It just didn't seem possible, but a Hyuuga's eyes were almost incapable of being fooled. Where a container of calm water had rested there was now a container with a miniature water spout fully formed in the center. The funnel of water slowly spun in place, a mockery of all the hard work over the past week.

**A/N: There's a very good reason why what happened at the very end happened. It will be explained in the next chapter or so. The explanation for the sink hole is that Gaara condensed a huge area of sand underneath them and then let the sand further up collapse downward. Don't ask why I didn't explain it in the chapter itself.**


	14. 14 Bonds Pt 1

**I don't own Naruto**

**A/N: First off, I'm looking for a Beta tester to help me with my ideas and editing. I've asked a few people already but haven't received any positive responses. Anyone who would like to act as a sounding board PM me or my MSN Screename is Hyuugamaki. You can IM me if you want. I'm going to go so far to say this chapter and the next are going to be my favorite ones so far. It's probably my best one so far, as far as character interaction goes. I meant for this to be a longer chapter, but due to certain circumstances I'm going to have to break it up into two chapters. Review please. Pretty please. Pretty please with Narutoblivion on top?  
**

Orochimaru stood in heavily decorated room made entirely of thick cobblestone. Most rooms were decorated with rugs, wall scrolls, or furniture, but Orochimaru's tastes were decidedly of a much more morbid variety. The almost pitch dark room was lit by an array of differently shaped and positioned monitors set against the wall farthest from the large door. They either showed views of his complex, or a view of some horribly tortured soul in one of the many rooms that honeycombed throughout the complex. The remaining two walls were covered over every inch with racks and shelves. All kinds of jars, archaic devices, body parts, disused tomes, and worst of all, mangled and severed body parts packed the shelves almost to bursting. It was Orochimaru's private office.

Before him a ninja of unidentified origin knelt in a very subservient position at his feet Whether it was a man or a boy was hard to discern in the darkness. This man by the name of Byakko had come to him a few days ago, going on about how he wanted to fight for 'Orochimaru-Dono's' glory. Orochimaru would have regulated the matter to one of the lower-ranked Jounin in his 'village' if it hadn't been for the unique ability this man claimed to possess.

"You can rise anytime you wish Byakko-kun" Orochimaru's voice rasped out. He always found obedience useful, but sometimes he found himself mired with the true fanatics. Those individuals had always proved difficult. "I have a task that I need you to perform for me. It involves a little trip to the land of wind, where I will need you to 'meet' someone. Is that acceptable?" It was really a choice-less matter for the prone ninja before him, he would comply or he would die.

A hollow voice that gave nothing away met his question "I will do anything you ask Orochimaru-Dono. Just let me loose and it will be done."

With that Byakko put his right hand to his heart in a solemn salute. The arm writhed and bulged with a mind of its own in the silence that stretched out between them. Just how special this ninja must be was becoming readily apparent to the snake Sannin. He started laughing uncontrollably. _Perfect, just perfect_. "Ku-ku-ku… Very well, I will tell you my plan then". He did so love a perfect plan.

* * *

In the main room of Sunagakure's garden complex an unusual scene was unfolding. Just a few moments ago Hinata had been struggling vainly against some kind of invisible wall when it came to her Suiton chakra molding. Sosha had been ready to suggest that they leave when an entire weeks worth of frustration was suddenly washed away as Hinata's manipulation Jutsu produced the intended result for the first time. At the same time this was going on both Naruto and Jiraiya had walked into the room, Naruto himself declaring his presence as loudly as he always did. 

Sosha had been monitoring Hinata's internal chakra when these two events played out. In the light of Hinata finally achieving her first major step in her Suiton training, Sosha was sickened that there was only a growing sense of disquiet form in her gut. In the few seconds it took Hinata to form the chakra Sosha was able to learn a lot. There was almost no flaw with the way the girl formed the chakra. However, once it was fully molded this thing, this… it was practically indescribable. It felt like this knot of foreign chakra inside her was distorting the flow by, in a sense, not being there. It made Sosha think back to the time when she had first decided to train her little sister. Chiyo had told her that there was something off about Hinata's chakra flow. The old lady had remarked that it was a minute disturbance, but that it shouldn't cause any problems. _Whatever this is it's much more than some small disturbance_. _I need to see that old windbag right now._ Unfortunately for her she couldn't think of a plausible reason why she would need to leave so soon after her pupil's first success. She let her hand drop from Hinata's neck as she stood up "I'm so proud of you Hinata-Chan. I knew you'd be able to do it eventually right?" The compliment sounded hollow to her, but this new problem was distracting her greatly. She looked down at Hinata, gaining a slight taste of amusement from the girl's obvious distress over what she should be paying attention to, Naruto or her first Suiton Jutsu. _Naruto… wait a minute._ Like a piece of a puzzle something slid into place in her mind. Her gaze snapped to the blond boy. The second that boy had entered the room Hinata's chakra had shifted too fast for her to fully analyze and then for the first time the out of reach Jutsu activated. _What in hell is going on? Someone isn't telling me something, and I think I have an idea who_. A hand drifted up to her long ponytail and proceeded to comb through it obsessively, something she always did when she was nervous or anxious. Her gaze drifted from student to teacher as Jiraiya finally waltzed into the room after Naruto. She needed to find some way to talk to Jiraiya and Chiyo _right now_.

Naruto himself was mesmerized by the miniature water tornado. It continued to hold his gaze until the Jutsu started to sputter, then finally died, the water splashing messily back into the basin. He was very impressed with Hinata. He considered himself to have a pretty decent repertoire of Jutsus, and whether this was actually true or not he didn't know a single elemental Jutsu. Other than Sasuke she was the first one of his friends he knew of to have learned that kind of Jutsu.

Seeing the obvious fruits of Hinata's labors Naruto thought back to the last week of training he had been through with the open pervert. Jiraiya had declared his Super Clone Jutsu to be at a pretty decent level that there would have been no reason to focus solely on that anymore. Naruto had suggested Kichiyose training, as he remembered from awhile back having wanted to ask the Ero-Sennin about how he could improve his skill with that Jutsu. He still remembered that conversation.

_"Oi Ero-Sennin, I really want to learn how to summon other toads besides Gamabunta and his kids. I've seen you summon some pretty cool toads already, so teach me…please? Please, please, please"._

_"That wouldn't be a good idea there Naruto. The last time I tried to summon one of my toads in a desert just ended up being a bad experience for everyone. You know how finicky they are. No matter who you summon they will just yell your ear off about how the sand gets between their toes or some such nonsense"._

_"Awww jeez, come on"._

_"Just wait until we get to the Rain Country and then you can summon as many toads as you want"._

_"Awww jeez"._

Thinking back it seemed to Naruto that his Sensei might have tried a few too many times to summon a toad in a desert if he spoke so nervously of the subject. Not much else had happened in the intervening week other than the constant mental strength training exercises. He had spent so much time in concentration drills and the like that he could swear his brain had bulked up to some kind of bodybuilder brain by now. As much as he had practiced, the effort put into controlling the Kyuubi hadn't produced the results Naruto had led Jiraiya to believe. There was no doubt that on a day to day basis he would have no problem keeping the demonic chakra under control, but in practice he had learned that the second he started to access too much of the chakra in combat his instincts seemed to be ripped away from him. He could now stop the process in it's infant stages but it also meant he couldn't risk releasing the Kyuubi for now.

Even after all that, he pushed it aside for the moment as he congratulated Hinata on her accomplishment. He ran up to her, almost knocking her over as he threw a congratulatory slap against her back. "Hey Hinata, let's go find a ramen shop to celebrate. Hopefully they have one around here that'll taste at least half as good as Ichiraku Ramen".

Not even giving the poor girl time to respond Naruto grabbed her hand and yanked her to her feet. He had already led her halfway to the door before Sosha could get over her shock and offer a farewell. "Bye bye Hinata-chan, have fun now!" She didn't even bother reminding her of the dinner they were supposed to have. You couldn't eat ramen that didn't exist. _Was it Sunagakure that was the only village without ramen shops or was there another one?_ The thought amused her. _Well, this saves me the trouble of coming up with a reason for needing to leave._

The second the door shut behind the furiously blushing and stunned silent Hinata Sosha purposefully made her way towards the last remaining person in the room. Jiraiya didn't miss the angry look on the younger woman's face, but he couldn't help himself. "What? I swear I didn't touch any girls… this time".

Sosha ignored the poor attempt at comedy. "Jiraiya, you have some explaining to do, and I'd prefer it if you did it right now!" she grabbed the man's arm, making a fair imitation of Naruto as she led Jiraiya to a door on the other side of the room. "Something is very wrong with Hinata-Chan, and if you or Chiyo-Obaa-Chan can't explain it so help me they'll never find either one of you".

Jiraiya was honestly baffled at whatever Sosha could be referring to. Considering the look on her face though, he didn't exactly see the need to offer up that bit of information right now.

* * *

The sun had been setting when Naruto and Jiraiya had finally arrived back in Sunagakure. After Jiraiya had checked in with Narima about their arrival they had made their way to the garden. Now, upon leaving the garden and adjoining hospital the sun had already set. Night was well upon Sunagakure. The sand-strewn streets were brightly lit no matter where you looked by conservative-looking lanterns hanging from every building. The buildings were more densely packed than they were in Konohagakure, the streets were narrower as a result. Another difference Naruto noticed between here and his home was the amount of foot traffic at night. People rarely went out after dark where he was from, excepting a few of the more important buildings in the village. Here in Sunagakure however one couldn't look anywhere in the village without least seeing a dozen people coming in going in all manner of dress. 

Once he realized she wasn't going to run away, Naruto released his grip on Hinata's hand. He admitted to himself that he had acted without thinking, which was a luxury he hadn't been allowed the past two weeks, but no one had complained so he simply went with it. "Do you know of any ramen shops Hinata? I haven't spent as much time here as you I guess. If not we'll find one eventually right?"

As much as Hinata wished she could pay attention to what Naruto was saying her mind was practically screaming at her. _Oh my god he was holding my hand, it was so warm! He was really holding my hand! Wait, we're going to eat ramen? That means we're going to eat right? Is that a date? OH MY GOD!_ Seeing that her brain was being of no help her feet managed to do what they did best and kept pace with Naruto.

Naruto was seeing that it might have been a mistake to have suddenly pulled Hinata out of the garden like that. She was being very quite, even for her. It only occurred to him now that Hinata might have wanted to stay and bask in the glow of her accomplishment. Now that he thought about it, how did he know that this was her first time doing that Jutsu? For all he knew that was her hundredth time doing it. However he knew it was beside the point right now, he looked back to see if Hinata was upset. She wasn't even looking at him, and her face was red. _Ah man, don't tell me that I made her mad_. "H-Hinata… did I… upset you?

Something finally broke through Hinata's rollercoaster thought process. She couldn't believe what she had heard. "Why would you say that Naruto-Kun?" she forced herself to look at him finally, only barely hoping that the relative darkness would hide her blush. How she wished sometimes she could just stop the blood flow to her cheeks. There was no denying that this was a dream come true to her, there was no way she'd let the moment be ruined. She increased her pace to match his so he wouldn't have to keep craning his neck back just to see her.

Hinata managed to avoid notice once again, Narutoblivion having once again saved her. "Oh, well it's just that you were pretty quite back there and I was worried I'd done something wrong by pulling you out of there like that. I admit it wasn't the most considerate thing I've ever done" He rubbed his hair sheepishly, as if it translated into an appropriate apology on its own.

"Oh no not at all. I was in there for awhile so I'm glad to get fresh air". It had been a tad bit inconsiderate of him, but she wouldn't let that little truth get out.

"That's good than" with that Naruto's gaze began to scan the plethora of buildings and stands, looking for something that looked like a ramen shop.

Hinata instantly realized what had stolen Naruto's gaze from her. She felt bad about it, but she didn't want to tell him just yet that there actually weren't any ramen shops in all of Sunagakure. Everyone in the village knew of his love for Ramen, it didn't take her special Narutobservational skills for her to know that. Before the boy found out she wanted to spend as much time like this as she could.

As Naruto continued to scan for Ramen and Hinata continued to bask a silence started stretching out. First moments were consumed like this, but eventually whole minutes fell prey to the silence. Before long Naruto took notice of, what was for him, the unnaturally long silence. To his surprise it wasn't all that hard for him to put ramen to one side as he tried to come up with something new to talk about. He racked his brain for some kind of topic that would be relevant. Another minute of silence passed before it came to him. "Oh yeah Hinata, did I tell you that outfit looked better on you than your last one did? Uhhh…" he trailed off as embarrassment took him over. Every time he looked at her it was like a new string on his heart was being plucked. It wasn't necessarily a bad feeling, but it wasn't a normal feeling he was used to either. He desperately tried to find something else to talk about. His traitorous eyes kept glancing at her so his next question really didn't help alleviate his embarrassment. "Oh, you cut your hair Hinata. What made you do that?" He felt like slapping himself on the forehead.

Having heard him compliment how she looked weeks ago didn't put a damper on the experience today. She desperately searched for something meaningful to say back. The first thing that came to mind was unfortunately "You look good too Naruto-kun. I mean that you… you…" She wanted to slap her forehead right now, _hard_.

Narutoblivion was in full swing as Naruto took the compliment at face value, not reading too much into it. "You really think so? I'm not sure it's really me but there seems to be a shortage of orange colored clothes around here".

The joke normally would have made her laugh. Sadly, she had to force it out just to cover up her embarrassment. _Unless I fell into a bottomless pit I don't think this could get any worse. Why can't I form full sentences when I'm around him. I'm sure normal girls don't have this kind of problem._ She had to admit to herself that Naruto actually did look pretty good in that outfit. She didn't know if it was the tan flak vest or the tight fitting black turtleneck shirt, or maybe a combination of the two, but it managed to make the normally goofy boy look… dashing. Thankfully for her she seemed to be in a permanent state of blush tonight so the blush that thought would have elicited was simply absorbed into the whole.

They were both saved from further embarrassment as a wave of people forced them apart. The rather large party, consisting of at least a hundred people kept pushing Naruto and Hinata apart. After trying in vain to stay next to him Hinata saw a spot near one of the buildings that didn't have any traffic going through it. Stepping out of character for only a moment she pushed forcefully through the throng of people, grabbed the sleeve of Naruto's shirt, and pulled him to that spot against the building. They both stood there watching the people go by for awhile, calming themselves from the sudden moment of excitement.

Naruto let out "thanks Hinata" even as his stomach grumbled at him. The choice of whether he wanted to talk to Hinata or eat food was about to be taken away from him.

Hinata simply nodded. She simmered for a few moments in the thrill of being so forceful for once.

Standing there close to Hinata, Naruto once again found himself trying to find a topic for conversation. It was fine being quite when Hinata had been asleep, but he couldn't help himself from trying to fill in awkward silences now. He remembered a conversation he had with Neji before leaving Konoha. _Let's see, what was it Neji said… oh yeah, I remember. _"Hey Hinata?" it came out more a question than a statement.

Hinata looked over at Naruto uttering a simple "yes?" Maybe if she started small her sentences would come out normal.

Naruto started walking after the crowd had passed forcing Hinata to follow suit. This time he went down a separate road from what they had been previously walking on. "What's your family like Hinata? I know Neji a little bit, but I don't know anything about the Hyuuga".

It was an innocent enough question but it was readily apparent that it wasn't the right question to ask. Even he could tell that, and he had never been to good at reading people. Hinata looked down at her feet, and her hands started to fidget with each other. He hadn't seen her do that in awhile. _Bad move, terrific._ "Sorry about that. Didn't mean to pry" a sheepish grin was all he could offer her. He had to think of something else, anything else to say. This was yet another instance when his mouth got him into trouble before his head could save him.

It wasn't that she didn't want to tell Naruto about her family. It was just that being so far from them for the first time in her life invigorated her with a true sense of freedom. Being reminded of that, of how horribly they had treated her, wasn't something she thought she was ready for. Despite her misgivings she knew that the longer she kept it bottled up the more she would end up regretting keeping something from Naruto. She was about to try and give him something when Naruto interjected.

"Have you been looking through that scroll I gave you? I know I learned one of my favorite Jutsus from reading a scroll once". He hoped that the lighter subject would calm her down a little at least. He was relieved when he saw her look back up at him, he couldn't read the puzzling expression on her face.

"Oh… that?" Hinata was ashamed with herself. She never imagined being able to talk to Naruto like this, and now that she had the chance she could only stand around barely answering his questions. "Well, I haven't really had a chance to look through it yet. I've been busy with both my Medical Ninjutsu and Suiton training-"

She was interrupted by a sudden outburst from Naruto. "Really? That's really cool Hinata. I knew you'd lick that medic stuff no problem".

His beaming smile was just shy of making her week in the knees. "Thank you Naruto-Kun". Hinata decided to take her chance "how has your training been going? You were out in the desert for two weeks. It must have been hard" Her heart lifted as she finally mustered the courage to ask the question.

Naruto smiled "Yeah it was pretty hard. I'm not sure where Jiraiya got our food-"

The old adage was to call evil's name was to draw attention to yourself. Though Jiraiya wasn't evil the phrase certainly seemed to fit as the man popped into existence in a cloud of smoke in front of them both.

"Aaaaaah, Ero-Sennin, what the hell-"

"Not now Naruto. I need to talk to Hinata". Jiraiya had no trace of his normal mirth on his face, a very serious expression was set in it's place.

"Hey what are you talking about?" Naruto was not used to Jiraiya make demands like this. Something was up.

"What do you need to talk to me about?" Hinata was not as used to the large man as Naruto was, his sudden appearance and his imposing demeanor were not helping her.

As if he sensed their combined disquiet Jiraiya let a smile slip through "actually Chiyo would like to see you, she says that it's pretty urgent". To Naruto he simply said "You know where our apartment is right Naruto? Go there for now and I'll bring Hinata back with me. Sosha says she'll be making dinner so try and clean up the place for us alright?" The promise of dinner was usually enough to get Naruto to do whatever he wanted. He was amazed when the kid's face didn't light up as it always had. _Just great, he chooses now to find some maturity_. "Alright?" he asked a little more forcefully.

Naruto didn't like suddenly being interrupted, but he also knew that whatever it was the old woman wanted to see her about it wasn't going to be something harmful to Hinata. After a good period of time keeping quite he finally spoke up "Alright, whatever-" he spared a glance for Hinata "I guess I'll see you later than".

Hinata nodded in agreement "I guess I have to go". She was irritated that her time she was spending with Naruto was being interrupted, but if Chiyo needed her for something she wasn't about to refuse.

Jiraiya nodded to Naruto, then looked to Hinata. He waited until she looked ready before placing a hand on her shoulder. "Don't look so worried. We'll be back before you know it". With that he raised a hand and formed the seal for a Shunshin Jutsu. The two disappeared in a cloud of smoke just as Jiraiya had arrived, leaving Naruto alone in the streets.

_Why can't I ever just catch even one break around here_. He attempted to shove his hands into the pockets of his jacket only to find out that he no longer had one. _There are just too many things I'm being forced to get used to all of a sudden. How much longer before I go crazy._ Settling for second best he slid his hands into his pants pockets before turning around and going back the way he came. He hoped that this was the right way to his new apartment.

**A/N: When Jiraiya says 'girls' he means women, not little girls, just in case there might have been some confusion. I deliberately left out the part about Hinata's hair from last chapter so there would be more of an... impact I guess.**


	15. 15 Bonds Pt 2

**I don't own Naruto**

**A/N: Review. It's long, be happy. I've looked back over the manga and feel that I'm forgetting certain aspects of the story and portraying people wrong. It's incredibly frustrating and I apologize for not giving everyone a better story. I also apologize for the real shitty way I've been handling my chapters, I promise to do my best to fix all of them over the weekend and re-upload them. Seriously, if anyone wants to beta for me, my SN for both AIM and MSN is Hyuugamaki. Once I redo all my chapters I'll have translations at the bottom of each for the Jutsus and techniques in case someone doesn't know them. Review.  
**

The streets of Sunagakure seemed a lot more foreign all of a sudden. Seeing as they looked exactly the same no matter where he went Naruto could only guess that he felt lonely because Hinata was now gone. If it had been Konoha he would have been just fine. He spent many hours out in his village's streets at night, but there wasn't a single familiar face, not a single familiar plot of land. It had probably been fifteen minutes before he'd even realized that he was completely, absolutely, and irrevocably… lost. _I'm pretty sure that Ero-Sennin didn't give me a map on purpose._ With his mind no longer being occupied with trying to find his way around he found himself thinking instead of what Hinata could possibly be doing

* * *

Jiraiya and Sosha stood off to one side of the room while Chiyo examined Hinata. They were in the same room that Hinata had practiced her Medical Ninjutsu in only a week ago. Now instead of sitting over a deceased bird Hinata was laying on a small cot that had hastily been rolled into the room upon their arrival. Hinata had been put to sleep after Sosha had placated her with promises that it was just a medical check-up. Chiyo had suggested that particular lie to tell Hinata, and Sosha had winced upon it's delivery. 

That Hinata had accepted the transparent falsehood had Sosha worried. Despite the short time they had known each other Sosha had come to know her little sister very well. The girl was smart, and she had an overdeveloped chakra control system compared to other ninja. There was the possibility that Hinata knew that there was something, however small, wrong with her and she submitted herself willingly. If that was true than Sosha's respect for her just doubled.

Chiyo's hand didn't even move a millimeter from his position directly above Hinata's abdomen as she probed deeply into that chakra anomaly with the strongest analyzing Jutsu she knew. The old woman's hand near burned with activated chakra.

It was quite obvious to Sosha that her two companions knew something about what was going on, if the looks they had been giving each other up to this point were anything to go by. Her concern grew when Neither one of them made any sarcastic jibes at each other or tried their corny sense of humor out on each other. _Crap._ She still remembered a time when the Konoha were her 'mortal' enemy. Even if that particular decision had been made for her against her own will she had killed her fair share of Konoha Ninja in her time. To compound her moral dilemma she had never really had any family to call her own. There was now a girl who had somehow entered her life while crossing both those boundaries. It had originally been a novelty to treat Hinata like her own little sister, but seeing her now on that cot many emotions warred within her. What hurt worst of all was that no matter how much she _wanted_ the shy girl to be her little sister she _did_ have a family somewhere. There were many things she wanted to get out of Jiraiya right now, but she had her hands full with her own conflicting emotions. _How did I get in so deep so quickly?_ _I promised myself that I would never let this happen… right?_

Chiyo's face furrowed further in concentration the more she delved into the strange anomaly within Hinata's chakra. It had been several minutes applying the high level Jutsu before she decided there was no longer any information she could gather from analyzing what she already knew. The question was, how much did Jiraiya know, probably more than she herself did, and how much did she want Sosha to know. The elderly Medic-Nin turned to meet her two stoic accomplices on the other side of the room. She spent a long time studying them both, evaluating the risk this posed and how much either of them could contribute to being a viable remedy the problem. Her patience had been stretched too far already by all this Konoha mission nonsense. If either one of them had started protesting about _anything_ she didn't think she would have the patience to deal with them. The problem with this situation was that all she had was information, not knowledge. There was a massive difference in the two, especially in this case. As she finally made her decision her eyes remained on one of probably only a handful of people that _had_ the knowledge.

Starting out Chiyo simply uttered the word 'Biju'. Both of them reacted exactly as she had expected them to. Jiraiya simply closed his eyes, his fears confirmed. Sosha face furled into a understandably confused expression.

"What do you mean Chiyo-Obaa-Chan… you mean like Gaara" The full implication of that one word hit her in an instant. Her fist shot up faster than the eye could follow and snagged the collar of Jiraiya's shirt. Her free hand bunched into a fist, the knuckles creaking under the intense pressure. "You put a Biju inside that poor girl?" Jiraiya didn't budge an inch, his eyes remained closed. "How could you possibly-" she stopped suddenly as Chiyo's throat cleared, cutting off her tirade.

Jiraiya seized that chance to gently remove the offending hand from his shirt. "No. Not her". His eyes opened slowly, and Sosha could see real pain there "Naruto".

That did not help Sosha's confusion. She was stopped from offering a rebuttal once again by Chiyo.

"Before you let your actions take you further than you wish to go I must explain something first. As much as I'd like to put the greater blame on Konoha we are much more guilty than they are on the subjects of Biju. Unlike Konoha, our village tried to use the Biju and it's Jinchuriki as a weapon. The Yondaime Hokage sealed the Kyuubi inside the boy Naruto as the only means to save his village. _I_ sealed the Shukaku inside Gaara's body as a bargaining chip for war. Before you go around falsely placing blame and judging others make sure you know the stakes."

These words shocked Sosha to her core, forcing her to take a step back from Jiraiya. By arbitrarily getting herself involved with a random innocent girl from a distant Ninja Village she had probably stumbled across one of the Ninja world's most dangerous pieces of information. If there had been a chair nearby she probably would have slumped into it, she certainly didn't feel like standing up right now. She did feel like pressing on however, if she dwelled too much on this mammoth of a bombshell she would certainly crack. She was certainly quick to blame others, and if she hadn't seen how much Chiyo had done for not only Hinata, but all of Sunagakure with her own eyes then she might have started railing against the small woman next. "What… are your you trying to say exactly. What does all-" she gestured with her hand at nothing in particular "this have to do with Hinata?"

Chiyo lightly massaged one of her temples. "Let's start from the beginning. How about that?" The old woman leaned against the got, setting herself in for a long explanation. "This all started when Jiraiya's cell was attacked by those sound nin on our border. Hinata had suffered a wound during the battle and I was attempting to heal it, as tired as I was. When I started her chakra circulatory system was perfectly normal. I then asked Naruto to apply pressure to her wound while I fashioned a poultice. When I went back to work I immediately noticed the anomaly. I knew that Naruto was the Konoha Jinchuriki, but I had no idea whatsoever that this would have happened. I specialize in Shukaku, not Biju in general. What I do know for a fact is that _this_ happened after Naruto touched her. I can say that his hand was bleeding at the time so I can only assume that was what caused this".

Jiraiya frowned at the last part "don't talk like this is at all his fault". Most likely Chiyo hadn't meant it to be received as such, but he was on edge at the moment. He couldn't help but feel responsible for this mess. _He_ had been playing around while his cell had been in danger. This was the result of his frivolity.

Sosha was equally as upset. She would have agreed with Jiraiya if she had known about those circumstances. It would have been quite clear to her that this was his fault. "Get to the point. What is it, and how do we get rid of it?"

Chiyo really wished that Sosha wasn't here. The situation was complicated just by her presence, but she really didn't see any way of keeping Sosha out of the loop with the way things were. "I'm really hoping Jiraiya knows more about this particular Biju. All I can figure out for certain is that whatever it's basic components are those of a Juin Jutsu".

Sosha flinched at the mention of a curse seal. _SHIT! "_That's Impossible, right? If it's a Juin Jutsu there would be some kind of identifying mark on her body. I've never seen anything that looks like that, nor did I see any evidence of that kind of effect in her circulatory system".

"The evidence all points to a Juin Jutsu. It's completely unorthodox as far as seals go, but that's the only thing I can think of to call it. You're right however, there is no identifying mark on her body that would suggest that one was present. It's a Juin Jutsu in chakra form, I've never seen the like before. It's obvious to me that the chakra that makes the seal is of Biju origin. Human chakra cannot mimic the chakra of a demon. Despite calling it a Juin Jutsu it certainly doesn't act like one from what I've seen so far. If what you say is true and the proximity of the Jinchuriki caused an imbalance in the seal than I am further puzzled".

The odd girl out in the information loop once again made an unnecessary comment. "That doesn't exactly help us if we can't do anything about it. What are we supposed to do with such vague information?" The subject of Juin Jutsu was making her extremely nervous. She pulled her ponytail over her shoulder and began combing through it thoroughly.

Jiraiya moved away from the wall and approached the resting Hinata. He stood over her with an apologetic look plain on his face. "I think I can help a little with that actually". He didn't have to look to know he had Sosha's rapt attention. "As far as the complications with molding chakra for Suiton Jutsus that's obvious. The Kyuubi chakra doesn't interfere with the molding of the healing chakra because that is something that's as much a part of it as it's evil nature. This is a double-edged sword because the Kyuubi has a natural aversion to water element chakra, making it even harder to try working with it. As far as the proximity issue is concerned… I'm not too sure about that"

Sosha was relieved for the first time in awhile at that news. It hadn't been Hinata's fault that she couldn't manipulate the Suiton Jutsu, it had been something else entirely. "Well, how can we get rid of it? There must be something we can do if you know this much right? Just let me know and I'll do anything I can".

Jiraiya sighed heavily. If Tsunade ever found out that he was giving away this information he honestly didn't think he'd ever be able to walk straight again. "That's just it. My village's knowledge of the Kyuubi is spotty at best. The records before Konoha was even formed are mostly just folklore and legend about the Kyuubi. Konoha only came in contact the one time, and we didn't exactly have a lot of time then to study it. I guess it's a good thing that the Yondaime insisted learning more about the Biju or my knowledge would be smaller than Chiyo's". Something tickled at his thoughts. There was something he was forgetting. "One of the files we have on the Kyuubi talks of a story about how the Kyuubi could propagate it's chakra inside other sentient beings. This acted like a form of puppetry Jutsu. The story mentioned that the Kyuubi was fond of pranks, taking control of people and causing havoc without being directly involved". He sensed that Sosha wanted to interrupt him, probably about the puppet thing. "No, I don't think there's any risk of manipulation on the Kyuubi's part. Naruto has too much control for something like that". _At least he'd better_. "I have no idea why it didn't manifest as a full Juin Jutsu. There are too many reasons as to why this might have happened".

There didn't seem like there was ever going to be much good news when it came to this situation. Sosha spoke up again, trying to grease the wheels on these two old-timer's memory. "That doesn't explain why this seal blocks her chakra normally but recedes when Naruto gets near. Shouldn't it get stronger whenever the Kyuubi got closer?"

Jiraiya turned away form Hinata and faced the woman "that's-" realization dawned. It finally came to him, what he had been trying to remember. "It's the Shodai's necklace! We know that necklace had once been used to aid the Shodai in placating an unnamed Biju long ago. It has properties that negatively effect the demons. Naruto now wears the same pendant around his neck, Tsunade gave it to him. The pendant isn't very powerful on it's own, but the Juin Jutsu itself wasn't that big correct? This could mean that the pendant had enough power to mutate the chakra causing a completely unexpected reaction. That also explains why the Juin Jutsu subsided when Naruto entered the room. The proximity was great enough that the necklace reacted to the chakra and caused it to go dormant".

Sosha had to admit, Jiraiya knew his stuff. "Can we… fix it?"

Jiraiya shrugged at the question. "The Yondaime was better at this stuff than I am. I know a good bit about Fuin Jutsu, but not enough to know what to use for something like this, or if I could even use something like this. The only thing that comes to mind would be a Subduing Seal".

The Suna Jounin vaguely remembered hearing something about Subduing Seals a long time ago. They acted as a talisman that didn't need to be directly applied to the body to seal specific kinds of chakra. "How long would it take to make a Subduing Seal?"

"I honestly don't know. I don't know the exact nature of this Juin Jutsu so countering it with was a Fuin would require more information before I could create one".

Chiyo walked over to the head of the cot, standing directly next to Hinata's head. "If it is as you say and it this seal operates under the principles of Puppet Manipulation than a few things about that seal now make sense. I think there's a few things I can look into that might help. I'm done for now, until we can come up with something I want you to keep those two as close together as possible to reduce the risk of the Juin Jutsu spreading". The old woman placed two fingers on Hinata's forehead, sending a small amount of chakra into her. Hinata began to awake almost immediately, her eyes fluttering open before Chiyo could remove her fingers. Chiyo backed up and allowed Hinata to sit up on the cot. "It was as I thought. You're body is still going through some pubescent changes and it was messing with your chakra circulatory system a little. This is pretty rare but you are a Hyuuga. I don't have a degree in your particularly unique chakra system so I can't really go into detail why it happened. Just know that it looks like you'll be fine now, all perfectly patched up to go waist your time learning that Suiton nonsense".

A reproachful look was shot Chiyo's way by Sosha. _At least you gave a little more thought into your lie this time you old bag, but you didn't have to insult my techniques._

"Thank you Chiyo-Obaa-Sama" Hinata bowed as much as her sitting position would allow. She had never heard of anything such as that before. Chiyo was the master healer so it didn't really surprise her if her Sensei would know of something like that.

"Well I've had a long day. It's time for me to go take a nap in my coffin. Gyahaha". The old woman left the room without another word with three sets of eyes watching her go, their owners confused at the horrible joke.

Jiraiya stared at Hinata for a few moments. He really did have no choice in the matter it seemed. _If I make a Subduing Seal than I'll have to strengthen the Shisho Fuin the Yondaime placed on Naruto with some other supplemental four-symbol seal. An effective one will force a limit on his chakra just like any five element seal would. I can't see him refusing though, he'd practically jump at the chance to gain more control over the Kyuubi. That Hinata's been effected by this doesn't hurt the cause either._ Trying to continue the lighthearted tone Chiyo had created he decided to bring up a most urgent topic. "So Sosha, ready to start making a feast?" he rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

_This guy must really not care or he has good control over his emotions._ She chewed on her lip in thought. This was a lot worse than what she had originally been led to believe. Looking at Hinata and how calm and unconcerned she seemed to be made the decision for her. She couldn't afford to let her little sister down. "You know it! You wanted to have dinner at your place right?" Ever the master of being perky she was easily able to mask her concerns.

"Hopefully, Naruto was supposed to have cleaned up the place but knowing him he got lost". Upon seeing her worried face Jiraiya was quick to add "don't worry, it won't be too hard to find him".

* * *

It was the first night in a long time where there were no screams. Orochimaru's complex was indeed vast, but it seemed the Sannin had intentionally built it to amplify the horrible screaming and moaning coming from the dungeons to well past the boundaries of the complex. On this night, the morbid place was illuminated under the brilliant full moon set high in the cloudless sky. The beautiful scene wouldn't have been out of place in a warm fairy tale, which made the fact that it was hiding the horrifying truth even worse. 

Urashihara sat on a ledge of one of the tallest buildings in the complex, her legs dangling over the side. For such a cool night she wore a simple pair of black pants with matching tank-top to allow her to experience the night air to its fullest.. The only noises that reached her ears were the gentle buzzing and chirping of various insects throughout the vast forest that stretched out all around Orochimaru's 'village. Nights like these were of the rarest indulgences she was allowed, forcing every moment to be much more precious than it would have normally. She enjoyed these nights more than anything else for two reasons. The first would be that this was the only place where she could be honest with herself and not fear detection, a place where none of Orochimaru's crazed lackeys cared to go. The second reason currently had it's head resting in her lap. Urashihara spent a long time staring out into the forest gently stroking Kaeri's hair, simply drinking in the moment.

Kaeri suffered the same problems that her caretaker did. Up here and away from the prying eyes of the other ninja and as far from Orochimaru as she could possibly get was the only time she was allowed peace. She had chosen to wear the same style of clothing as her counterpart, choosing the color white for her attire instead of the black. Her breathing matched each stroke of her only friend's hand as it traveled through her hair time and again.

The two of them were under constant threat of discovery. The fake personas they showed to the outside world put an immense strain on them both. If they weren't as hard as the rest, as soulless as the rest, as cruel as the rest then they would die. The brief moments they were able to steal away from their cruel reality were a terribly unbearable memory every time they were forced back into Orochimaru's world.

Urashihara had fortunately grown into her second persona easily, not having to change herself much to achieve the desired secrecy she wanted. Kaeri on the other hand was a completely separate case. Even as kids the girl had been bad at lying, in such a dangerous situation like this it posed a constant threat to her life.

"Are you feeling any better now? I was afraid that when the damned Uchiha had kicked you he killed you… I was very scared". Urashihara smiled down at Kaeri, letting her know that she was relieved for her, and not upset over the incident. The large welt the attack had left on Kaeri's forehead had not been healed, left as a reminder of her blunder.

Kaeri reached a tentative hand up to touch at the wound, upset that it still hurt even now. "I went too far I guess. The 'other me' is so different that I sometimes forget to hold it back". Unlike Urashihara, the younger girl's second persona was something she hadn't easily acclimated to. The strain of constantly trying to be someone different was having some serious detrimental affects on her mental state.

_If one of the Sound-Nin heard the usually crude Kaeri say that than any hopes of keeping the illusion going would go right out the window_. "I know it's hard but if we don't keep these facades up we will never even have a chance to find what we came here for".

Her restlessness growing, Kaeri suddenly sat up. "Yakushi-san said that the snake had chosen you for a second level curse seal. You've heard the stories of those that are 'chosen'. You won't just be pretending to be one of his murder machines, you really _will_ be one". Panic entered the girls voice and kept increasing as she talked. If she were to lose Urashihara to the snake she knew she wouldn't be able to survive on her own in this hell.

_The real reason why she's so upset, I thought as much. _Knowing her friend's changing moods very well Urashihara wrapped an arm around Kaeri's shoulder. The close contact always calmed her down when her fears threatened to undermine her rationality. "You know I wouldn't let that happen. Look, all we need to do is survive the Chuunin exam and before you know it we can leave here forever. Trust me".

Lying was not something Urashihara had ever done to her so Kaeri didn't waste any more of their precious time thinking about it. Satisfied with the answer Kaeri closed her eyes, content with enjoying the soothing silence.

Urashihara had long ago decided that there was nothing she wouldn't be able to do to protect her childhood friend. Even after coming here and pretending to be someone else, killing and carrying on like a true Sound-Nin, she did not flinch in her resolve.

As if some cruel god was testing her, Kaeri had almost immediately started to change when they had come here over a year ago. The younger girl had always been a considerate and gentle person, but the identity she wore as a Sound-Nin could not have been a more perfect antithesis. The personality forced upon her by their leader could not have been a more cruel choice.

When Kaeri's breath began to slow with the onset of sleep Urashihara's eyes took their leave of her and reverted to staring back out into the night. A growing sense of dread filled her every time she came up her like this with Kaeri. She had done well to fool Orochimaru, too well. She now faced a 'promotion' that would most likely take her second persona from illusion to reality, making a perfect murder weapon out her. What was worse than that was Kaeri, if the girl didn't get herself under control soon the mission would have to be aborted. No matter what the cost would be upon their failure she would not let her friend die. A heavy sigh escaped from her. If she didn't think of a way to dodge her promotion and soon it would be the end of everything.

* * *

The battle was over almost too quickly. Neji stood over his defeated opponent, a Cloud-Nin. It was unfortunate that the man, much older than his own fourteen years, had been so adamant about fighting back. His Byakugan witnessed as the chakra in the man's circulatory system was even now starting to fade, death taking him. At one point the would have been glad to kill as many Cloud-Nin as possible for what happened to his father, but those feelings were distant to him now. He had to wonder however, that an incursion like this, Ninja versus Ninja on the battlefield would not register with the politicians of either village yet the incident with his father would rile up so much conflict. Seeing as there was no more need to watch over the man he canceled out the Byakugan and took a look around. Neji had chosen a tight-fitting white battle robe as his most recent attire. The sleeves of his robe extended beyond his hands and widened considerably at the forearm. The simple outfit was finished off by a wide black cloth belt wrapped tightly around his waist. 

The battle his cell and the Lightning Country Ninja had waged took place in a sparsely vegetated clearing. Massive Konoha trees circled the clearing in a tight circle. The full moon's light intermittently passed over the clearing every time a cloud would pass over it, the moving patches of light were barely enough to see by with normal eyes.

Temari stood near the edge of the clearing, looking into the trees as if she was searching for something. She eventually gave up after she couldn't locate whatever it was. She turned to face Neji with a smirk. If he didn't know any better he'd say that impudent look of hers hand been surgically grafted there, it certainly didn't ever seem to go anywhere. The Sand-Nin hadn't bothered to change her look since the last time she had run across Shikamaru. She wore a mini-robe that barely got as far as her thighs before ending with a cloth breastplate firmly fitted over that A long red ribbon topped off the ensemble, going down almost as far as the ground. It would have been a very normal look if it wasn't for the four strange puffs of hair sticking out in different directions on the back of her head. She folded her gigantic fan before allowing it to smash into the ground, letting a hand rest on top of it. "I think I might have accidentally blown that guy too far away. I can't seem to find him".

"How troublesome. I almost had him with the Kagemane, you didn't need to do that". Shikamaru stood at the farthest edge of the clearing from Neji and Temari. He stood in front of the two remaining Cloud-Nin, his Kagemane no Jutsu keeping them firmly rooted where they stood. Shikamaru, like Temari, hadn't bothered to change his clothing. He still wore the same black shorts and grey shirt, the newest addition of a Chuunin flak jacket looking like he had been born for it.

"You were too slow. Besides, I wanted to have fun too" Temari countered.

"You were the one chasing them around for half an hour, don't people like you consider that fun?" Shikamaru sounded annoyed that he was being haplessly drawn into another bickering match.

"At least I'm enjoying myself. 'People like you' surprise me every day when you manage to find the energy to do something other than complain".

"Forgive me if I complain, but you certainly give me enough reasons too".

"Maybe if you showed more interest in something other than clouds I wouldn't harp on you so much".

"What's wrong with clouds?"

"I don't like clouds".

"Other people like clouds, what should it matter to me if you don't like clouds".

"That's not the point! Why don't you ever have a little more energy?"

"This is troublesome".

"You always say that when you're loosing!"

In the time the two had held their argument Neji had made his way over to the bound ninja. Both ninja gave him fearful looks, they had great seats for the slaughter their ally had gone through. As Shikamaru and Temari continued their heated discussion he walked behind each of the ninja, striking their necks with quick blows. It had been an odd experience watching them. Because Shikamaru himself had gotten into the argument both of the captured ninja had followed every single movement. They continued to follow the wild gestures even after having been knocked out. Shikamaru didn't even seem to notice as the bound ninja's movements tried vainly to transmit back to Shikamaru through the Kagemane Jutsu.

"It's over both of you. Tsunade-Sama wanted at least one of them brought back for questioning. If you want to keep on arguing then do so." Neji bent down and hoisted the smaller of the two onto his shoulder. "I'm going back to the village now".

It wasn't too far from the village, Neji didn't see the need to hurry. If he did than when his two cellmates caught up with they'd probably be upset at him for leaving. _How troublesome. It's almost as bad as Lee sometimes, but at least he didn't argue with himself_. The thought of such a thing elicited a small smile from him. Both Lee and his cousin were now in the care of Naruto. He could only hope that both of them were finding what they wanted in the far off Sunagakure. Hinata in particular, Naruto was the _only_ person he felt safe leaving Hinata with, and the only person he knew for a fact would dispel that introverted personality of hers. He could only hope that her experiences with her new cell were better than his own.

* * *

After almost a hour of useless wandering Naruto was seriously considering swallowing his pride and asking one of the random Suna citizens for directions. . The streets looked exactly the same as the ones he had been walking on with Hinata earlier. Wherever the Hamada Apartments were was beyond him, for all he knew it was already buried under a sand drift. It was getting pretty late by now and no one had come to find him. That could only mean that whatever it was they were doing with Hinata was taking awhile. _No matter what that Ero-Sennin says it seems kind of fishy to me. I'll make sure to let him have it the next time I see him. _Almost as bad was the fact that there didn't seem to be a single ramen restaurant anywhere in the city. This was very disturbing news. If it really did turn out that there was no ramen in Sunagakure how would he survive? 

He walked past Gaara without even knowing at first, his thoughts about the ramen shortage eating at his attention. He was a good ten feet further down the street before he realized who he had just seen. He spun around "Gaara?" It seemed like he couldn't go for very long in this village on his own before he ran into the fellow Jinchuriki.

Gaara had been watching Naruto for awhile now, not having anything better to do with his time. It seemed to him that the blond boy was defiantly lost. "Are you looking for something?"

"Well a ramen shop would be nice, but I guess I'm really looking for the Hamada Apartments. That's where the Ero-Sennin said we would be staying, but I swear everything looks the same to me".

Gaara gave his ghost smile "That's only because you don't live here. If you're looking for those apartments than they would be four blocks to the east-" he pointed to a broad street of to his left "-and than two blocks south". He paused, seeing that Naruto looked fully capable of getting lost again despite the easy instructions. "I can show you if you'd like?"

Naruto instantly brightened up "Ah, that would be really great. I'm getting really tired of walking around. Did you know that there don't seem to be any ramen shops?"

Gaara began walking down the street he had indicated earlier, Naruto right beside him. "What is ramen? Is it something you eat?" It was a perfectly innocent question.

Such a question made Naruto want to cry "You're serious aren't you. Ramen is a very serious matter you know, how am I supposed to survive without my fix?"

_Is he addicted to this ramen stuff? I should probably stay away from it_. "Sorry" was his finally statement to the subject of ramen.

"I'll think of something I guess". He was peeved at the absence of ramen, but he had other questions that needed answering. "Hey, how do you keep finding me?" Naruto would swear that there must be a tracking Jutsu on him or something.

"The Shukaku always gets nervous the closer he is to the Kyuubi. That's about as easy as I can explain it". Gaara figured that would elicit some concerned looks from his friend. "You don't have to worry, no one travels this part of the village until later in the night, so we won't be overheard".

Naruto's face scrunched up at that admission "right… how do you do that exactly?"

"You do not feel the same thing as I? I naturally assumed the Kyuubi would respond to Shukaku in the same way". It had never occurred to him that their demons were different.

"Nope, Kyuubi stays in his kennel where he belongs. I don't hear a peep out of him unless I call for him". _At least, that's what usually happens_.

"I see" was all Gaara had to say to that.

"Isn't Shukaku sealed inside you the same way?" Naruto had never been able to talk to anyone about his demon to someone who could truly understand what it felt like. He didn't feel the need to hide anything around Gaara about the Kyuubi, a relief he had to be careful not to get used to.

Without the need to say anything Gaara felt the same way as Naruto about their demons. "No. I don't think my father the Kazekage was exactly concerned with how the Shukaku was put inside of me, just that I would be able to be utilized as a weapon. The demon rages inside me constantly to get out. It used to be easy to control him, all I would have to do was kill and he'd be satisfied for a little while at least. Now that I've stopped killing I have a much harder time holding him back. He is… frustrating".

Naruto instantly felt sorry for Gaara. A sympathetic sadness came over him. This was probably the only other person who could possibly understand what it was like to grow up with his entire village hating him. In some ways it seemed that Gaara had if far worse than he did. "That's horrible. How could your father possibly justify something so… monstrous".

"I cannot think of it that way. If I start to think of why I was cursed with Shukaku than I might stray from the path you've set before me. I don't ever want to be controlled by someone else, and I definitely don't want the past controlling me either".

Those words resonated deep within Naruto. They rang as true as anything he himself had to say on the matter. "Aren't you afraid you might loose control one day?" The question hit very close to home for him. The ever-present threat of the Kyuubi breaking free weighed heavier on his mind every day.

Gaara didn't have to ask "Like when you lost control the other day?" to know why the question sounded so urgent. The worry was plain on Naruto's face. He saw something there that he had seen every time he looked in a mirror, insomnia. _Is he so worried that he doesn't even sleep? _He felt the question to be too personal, so instead he said "I am in fact. I doubt there will ever come a day when my control isn't tested time and again by my demon".

Naruto echoed the sentiments "It seems like every day that goes by that damn fox gets his claws in me a little deeper than the day before. Ero-Sennin has me doing some mental exercises to try and 'fix' my brain so I can fight him better, but it's not working as well as either of us would like".

Considering how hard Naruto seemed to be making an effort to stop his deterioration, Gaara wasn't sure he wanted to give him the bad piece of news he was holding back. After thinking about it he decided that Naruto would be able to handle it. "Baki looked into the Kazekage's notes after he had died and he found some documents concerning the sealing methods for Biju". Even as he said it Gaara turned down the street he had indicated earlier.

Naruto kept going in the same direction they had been for a brief moment before noticing his blunder and caught up with Gaara. "What do you mean by that?" _It can't be this easy, did they find something that can stop all this?_

Gaara still hesitated. He himself wish he had never learned of this. "The Kazekage had extensively researched Biju sealing methods a long time ago, wanting the most effective way to transmigrate the Shukaku. What he found was that every sealing method known to man that could contain a Biju was unstable. No matter what kind of seal is used they would deteriorate over time and eventually fail. There exists no known way of strengthening the seal indefinitely either. This is what the Kazekage's research boils down to". He turned his head to look at Naruto, making sure he was okay. "I'm sorry".

There was a long silence between them, the scratching of their sandals on the sandy street and distant noises of busy village life filling in the gap. He realized he might be worrying Gaara so he put on a brave face. A weakly attempted smile crossed his face "Don't worry about it. I'm sure we'll think of something". He hated himself for saying such a blatant lie. _I'm always saying such things. How can I be so sure, what the hell makes me think there's anything we can do about this?_ Despite his misgivings he couldn't let Gaara feel bad for telling him that news. "I want to make us better Gaara. I want to end the suffering of everyone who is afflicted with a Biju. There must be something we can do one day that will allow us to live as normal Ninja". It's what he felt deep inside, what he truly wanted, but it didn't mean that he had any way of going through with it.

"Where would we begin?" Gaara had made peace with his fate long ago, but Naruto always had a way of surprising him.

"I don't know, but we _will_ find a way. I promise". Naruto could almost feel his self loathing mount with every falsehood he made. Promises meant everything to him, and he had made quite a few in the short time he had been alive already. The most recent promise, the one to bring Sasuke back, had been his first failure. The most important promise he had ever made had been shattered like so much glass. _What is it that makes me think I'll be able to keep this one. I was so sure I could bring Sasuke back and look what happened with that. This is something that has pretty much no chance of happening and I'm just shooting my mouth off._ Hatred from others was something he had grown used to a long time ago. Hatred from himself was still new to him but he had a feeling he would adapt.

"I believe you. If I can, I'd like to stop what's happening as well". Gaara stopped in front of a building with the entire front of it covered in glass windows. "We're here, Hamada Apartments".

Naruto felt bad that Gaara was putting his trust in him when he couldn't bring himself to do the same. Such thoughts were temporarily put from his mind as he finally beheld the destination he had been trying to reach for almost two hours now. He stared up and down the length of the building. Other than the large array of windows it looked like every other building in the place. _No wonder I can't find anything._ As his gaze shifted back down the building he looked into the lobby. He was surprised by what he saw. "Hey, it's fuzzy brows and Nari… whatever" he couldn't be expected to remember everyone's name he came across could he?

Gaara walked up to the glass door of the building. He stepped onto a mat right in front of the doors causing them to slide out of his way. Naruto was impressed by such an odd contraption. Gaara left Naruto in front of the building while he walked in to meet the two acquaintances. Naruto had to force himself not to think too hard about the door opening device and rushed to catch up. The lobby was brightly lit and festively decorated with various majestic paintings of the desert. The front desk sat directly in front of the sliding doors. A female receptionist sat straight and pretty in her chair, looking like she was just waiting for someone to ask for help.

"Oh! Naruto-Kun, Gaara, you made it". Lee greeted them first, looking very pleased to see both of them.

Narima, glasses covering his eyes even at night, was next. "We were about to look for you. Thanks for saving us the trouble". The man leaned against the wall closest to the large stairs next to a no smoking sign. A cigarette rested in his mouth, anticipation on his face for when he'd finally be able to smoke it.

"Well sorry that I didn't have a map. I can't help it that I'm the only one who doesn't know his way around here". Naruto really didn't need any more negativity right now.

Lee smiled sheepishly in response. "I was lost trying to find my place the first time too. I was actually trying to find this Apartment too when I ran into Narima-San-".

"Stop calling me that" Narima interrupted.

"-And he told me that there was going to be dinner at your place" Lee finished.

"I'll be damned if I get blocked from dinner this time" Narima looked every bit as antsy as he sounded.

"Where's Ero-Sennin. Is he still not back?" Naruto found himself starring at Narima. Now that he saw him In a much less stressful environment there was something vaguely familiar about him, maybe it was the face.

"Actually he's in the apartment right now. He had sent us out to find you and, well, here we are". Narima gnawed on the filter of the cigarette in agitation. _Jeez I need a smoke_.

Naruto's eye twitched involuntarily. "What the hell!" that outburst caused the receptionist to jump in her seat. "I've been walking around completely lost and he's been up there all nice and cozy?" He started to grind his teeth. It was like the man tried as hard as possible to mess with him every chance he had.

Lee made calming motions with his hands. "Now now Naruto-Kun, he hasn't been here that long, he's just been helping Sosha-San clean up and make dinner".

Naruto found that he couldn't stay mad. He just wanted to get to his room and find his bed. It had been a long two weeks sleeping on sand, and he couldn't wait to start the process of replacing the bad memories of sleep with good ones.

Turning on his heel and walking up the stairs, Narima called over his shoulder "If you're done here you can follow me so we can get this thing under way already".

* * *

Hinata sat in one of the dinner table's chairs of Naruto and Jiraiya's apartment, hands on her lap. When Jiraiya had first shown her and Sosha into the apartment Sosha had freaked. There was a fine layer of dust over everything and sheets were thrown over everything. After her older sister had set down all the necessary dinner items on the counter she had immediately started cleaning, forcing Jiraiya to help. When Hinata had offered her help Sosha had told her to just rest and wait for Naruto while she and Jiraiya took care of everything. 

The apartment was nicer than Sosha's own and she actually lived in the village. Seeing something like this, Hinata could only guess that it paid to be a Sannin sometimes. There were two bedrooms, a full kitchen, a dining room, and a living room. Like most of the buildings in Sunagakure this one even had a balcony, though this one could probably fit ten people on it with room for comfort. For now the apartment only had the bare minimum furniture in it and no kind of decoration.

The timid girl was about to ask again if she could be of any help when the front door swung open. Naruto, Lee, Gaara, and unexpectedly, Narima walked into the sparsely furnished apartment.

Naruto's voice immediately reached her ears "Ero-Sennin! What's the big deal leaving me out there all on my own huh?" Naruto stormed over to where Jiraiya was chopping up some onions, his nose flaring in anger.

Jiraiya turned to meet Naruto, tears in his eyes "you don't have yell Naruto, I'm a delicate flower I'll have you know"

Naruto had wanted to hit the old man ever since he had left him all on his own in the streets. He cocked back a fist, seriously ready to punch his Sensei. "Don't start that crap with me Ero-Sennin. I know you don't have feelings!"

The three remaining arrivals gave them a wide berth as they made their way to the dinner table. After seating themselves they all continued to watch the spectacle with cautious attention.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he brandished the knife he had been using in mock readiness.

Hinata stood up out of her chair suddenly. If she didn't stop this soon something bad might happen. She opened her mouth to speak but was beaten to the punch by Sosha.

"Why don't you go cool off on the nice balcony Naruto-Kun. I'm sure the bad man is sorry. Aren't you bad man?" Sosha's happy demeanor was mediating the situation more than her words were.

Jiraiya simply 'Hmphed' at the idea.

After several failed attempts to start another insult Naruto's shoulders sagged in defeat. Hanging his head, he marched out to the balcony without another word. He opened the sliding glass door slowly and closed it at the same pace.

Surprising herself Hinata shot Jiraiya an angry look before following Naruto out to the balcony. Jiraiya's apologetic look met her back as she stalked out to join the upset boy. After closing the door behind her Hinata joined Naruto at the metal rail of the balcony. The boy had his arms folded over the side, looking down on the street five stories below.

Naruto spared a glance her way as Hinata leaned against the rail to check to see if he was okay. "Hey Hinata, did the thing with Chiyo go all right?" He sounded slightly depressed to her, something she hadn't ever expected to hear from him.

"Oh that? Yes, it was just a check-up that she had been holding off on for awhile". She didn't dare repeat what Chiyo had told her to Naruto, she wasn't ready to start getting embarrassed when Naruto didn't look to be in the best spirits. It didn't look like he wanted to talk about what was bothering him so she tried a different approach. She had felt bad about her poor response to his question about her family earlier and wanted to try and make it up to him. As sensitive as the subject was for her she had spent the past hour trying to gather up the courage she would need to answer his questions. _If I want something to happen it has to start somewhere, right?_ Again she had to wonder if that particular mannerism she had picked up from Sosha was permanent. "You wanted to know more about the Hyuuga clan right, Naruto-Kun?"

Having Hinata this close to him was causing all the things weighing heavily on his mind to take a back seat for the moment. It wasn't so bad, this calm he could count on whenever he was around her. "Yeah I guess I did, Neji told me a little bit during the Chuunin exam. There's some stuff about a cage seal, and the whole main family-branch family problem. He also said some stuff about your father. I got the impression that was only the beginning of a very long story though".

Hinata was happy to hear the depression creep out of his voice. _I'm glad that I can at least do this much_. "That reminds me Naruto-Kun, I never had the chance to congratulate you on beating Neji during last year's exam. I heard that everyone was cheering for you. I'd gotten sick again so I couldn't see it but even Neji spoke really highly of you". It had been subtle at first, but standing her now next to Naruto, Hinata could tell how far she had come. _I haven't stuttered or blushed even once!_

Normally Naruto would have just been all smiles and quipped about how awesome he was, but the thought never even crossed his mind now. "It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. That Byakugan is a scary thing".

Hinata ignored the fact her own Byakugan couldn't come close to measuring up to the one Naruto had respect for. "I hate to admit it, but even after the things I said to you I still had doubts that Neji could have been beaten… I'm sorry for not believing in as fully as I wanted to". The admission was an awkward one for her, but she felt like it needed to be said.

Naruto surprised her by smiling at what she said. "Don't worry about it Hinata. Even if it's true, those words you said to me that day really did give me back the confidence that I'd lost. I can understand why you might have thought that way about Neji".

Hinata's heart jumped. She had gone over that day over and over in her head a hundred times. There was no way she'd ever forget those words. Thinking back to them she couldn't believe that she had actually given him so much confidence. "Oh, why would you say that?" She hadn't forgiven herself for not fully believing in Naruto, but it looked like he wasn't so critical of such things.

"The way he treated you during the prelims was truly awful. He humiliated you, destroyed your confidence, and then tried to kill you. If that happened to me I might have considered him larger than life myself. I couldn't blame anyone for thinking that way under the circumstances". He offered the girl a tentative smile. "I'm just glad I was able to put him in his place for you".

Hinata couldn't believe how easily Naruto had understood her feelings. Not even Kiba and Shino had understood her so well.

Naruto's face slipped back into it's serious countenance "But you know what? Lately I haven't really felt like I've been doing any good. It seems like all I can do is screw up. It seems like no matter how hard I try, everything just keeps getting worse. I don't know what to do anymore Hinata". He hadn't even talked about this with Gaara, someone he considered to understand him better than anyone else.

She didn't know exactly what he was talking about, but it sounded bad. What could possibly cause the ever-positive Naruto to talk in such a way? He sounded just like she had all those months ago, completely lost in helplessness and self-doubt. It was finally her turn to help Naruto in the same way he had. "That's not the Naruto I know!" Her expression conveyed a sense of resolute determination.

"Huh?" He hadn't expected such an outburst from her.

"You believed in yourself when everyone else would have given up on themselves Naruto-Kun. You trained harder than anyone else, and when the others passed you with little effort you kept on trying".

The words stung a little, but with the ring of truth. _Yeah, but this is a little bit different than trying to learn Jutsus_ Naruto countered glumly, if only to himself.

"You always tried your best even when there was no hope of succeeding. Whenever someone said you were no good you tried all the harder to prove them wrong. I've never seen anyone who tried to put so much into improving themselves as you have. How can you say that you're only screwing up? In the past you've always used that a reason to try harder the next time and beat the odds, right?"

It occurred to him suddenly. _How does she know all this. It almost sounds like she's been watching me my entire life._

"I would watch you fail time and again, and no one would give you any encouragement to do any better or give you tips on how to improve your failings. You say that despite your efforts 'it' gets worse? Everyone saw you as the number one dropout of our class, They saw you as a person who couldn't do anything expected of himself as a ninja, but you beat Neji! He was considered to be an elite Genius and you proved everybody wrong. You showed the entire village that you could do anything if you tried hard enough and believed in yourself more than anything". It literally felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest any second. She couldn't believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. Where had they been hiding up until now? "I've watched you the entire time Naruto-kun, and I know I wouldn't be here if I hadn't seen how hard you tried". Hinata had to resist the urge to clutch a hand to her throbbing chest. If there hadn't been a guard rail there to steady her she might have fallen over right there. _I think I've used up about a year's supply of confidence_.

Naruto's mouth hung open in utter shock. He had no idea that there had been anyone who had paid so much attention to him, apparently, over the years. Her words took a long time to settle in, his brain only being able to process so much at one time. _How could I possibly have sunk so low. She's absolutely right. There's no way I can let this get me down. If I don't get back up and try harder than ever nothing will change and I'll be stuck where I am forever._ How could he possibly have been so dense as to not have noticed Hinata watching him. Sure he had seen her here and there… The more he thought about it the more he realized actually how many times he had just 'seen her in passing' over the years. _If I could just have half the confidence in myself as she does for me than I don't see what's stopping me from moving mountains_. He couldn't put his finger on it, but her words were much more than just a speech about his confidence. They made him feel warm. More than just lifting his spirits… they charged him, almost as if he had been hit by a bolt of lightning.

Respect was not a feeling he used much, but he was certainly feeling loads of it now. "Hinata…I don't-" he blinked hard in an attempt to clear his mind "-thank you". He didn't have to put any effort into the sincerity present in his voice. "I honestly didn't know you…" words began to fail him again. "I didn't know that you felt that way. I didn't know that I had someone watching over me the entire time. I'd wish I'd known then, but I guess I'm just glad that I know now that someone like you was there". Without any conscious thought given to the action, his had extended from it's perch and rested gently on her arm. "You're absolutely right. I'm really glad you were here to knock some sense back into me". He removed his hand, realizing the embarrassing situation he was causing. "I'd forgotten how far I've come because I always believed in myself and never went back on my word". As if his bout of depression had never happened he gave her a beaming smile "You gave me back my Nindo Hinata, I can't tell you how glad I am that you were here for me".

Hinata's attempts to slow her heart rate went right out the window when that warm, calloused hand had been placed onto her exposed arm. If anything more happened she might have a heart attack. "I only wanted to be able to pay you back for all the time you've given me confidence in myself Naruto-Kun". If she tried to say any more bold things tonight she might need to medicate herself.

Naruto's face was overrun by a determined look, a look Hinata had seen on him so many times, a look she was glad was back. "I _won't_ give up on Sasuke. No matter what he says I will bring him back even if I have to break every bone in his body!" He punched the rail for emphasis, the iron bar reverberated loudly like a tuning fork.

The incident with the mission to retrieve Sasuke from Orochimaru's clutches was not the most common knowledge in the village, but Neji had told her a little bit about it. "I'm sorry you couldn't bring back you're friend Naruto-Kun". She couldn't even imagine what it was like to try and deal with that kind of betrayal.

"He was more than just a friend to me Hinata. He was like a brother to me. I'd never had any family growing up and he was one of the first people to not look at me like I was a freak". All the memories he had made with Sasuke came flooding back then. Where the disappointment had only made him feel bad before he was now resolved to learn from his mistakes and create a better outcome the next time.

"It sounds very personal". Hinata didn't want Naruto to feel like he had to tell her something he didn't want to.

"It is but… I know! I can tell you all about me and Sasuke and you can tell me about the Hyuuga. How does that sound?"

It sounded like Sasuke was a large part of his life. Any chance she could take that would allow her to learn more about Naruto was one she was willing to take. She nodded vigorously with a smile plastered on her face. "I would like that very much".

"Okay then. It all started when I was a little kid…"

As Naruto began to recount the lengthy tale of his childhood and time spent with Sasuke to Hinata dinner and the people inside remained all but forgotten. The people in question were already in the process of eating said dinner. Watching the two talk excitedly. It was better than any TV program could have hoped to be.

**A/N: Review. I assume that they have TV, they have movies and view screens. Also, everyone can see Naruto and Hinata, but not hear them. Interpret Kaeri and Urashihara's relationship however you want, i don't care, and don't want to hear it. Neji is fourteen instead of thirteen because I assume he would have aged a year by now, same thing with the exam being 'last year' there had to be some kind of time passage. 'Hamada' is a play on words. It's a type of surface for a desert and one letter different from 'Ramada'. Review.  
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	16. Note

Righty right, the first two chapters have now been finally redone, expect the rest to follow as quickly as my busy schedule allows (I work 80 hours a week). Please visit my anime blog at acinonyx(dot)wordpress(dot)com and drop a comment, fav it, or tell your friends, any support is appreciated. 


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